The Winchester Run Read online

  “You had trouble with him because of us,” Trinity said.

  “He had a burr under his saddle before I even mentioned any of you,” said Mac. “He wanted to be ornery, so I just laid it on the line. I told him he’d been speaking with a forked tongue, and that the four of you were here for the truth. He told me a story that had the ring of truth. Do you want to hear it in private?”

  “No,” Trinity said, “and I believe I’m speaking for us all. Each of you knows why we are here, and for putting up with us and our ignorance all the way from Dodge, I think you deserve to know what really happened.”

  Mac told them, except for the captain’s last few words, repeating what Stockton had told him. For a long moment, there was only silence. Hattie spoke.

  “There must have been other deserters. Why is the captain so bitter toward these four men, and so angry with us for wanting the truth?”

  “I wasn’t going to tell you all of it,” Mac said, “unless I had to. When the four men deserted during the Comanche attack, one of the three soldiers who remained was Captain Stockton’s brother, the lieutenant in charge of the patrol.”

  “I reckon Stockton has a right to some ill feelings,” said Red, “but I get the idea this bunch of Comanches was enough in number to have wiped out a seven-man patrol to the last man, if they’d all stood their ground.”

  “I felt the same way, while Stockton was talking,” Mac said, “but he’s jack leather army. Our discussion would have gone to hell and beyond.”

  “I believe I understand his feelings,” said Trinity. “It’s a matter of responsibility, of honor, and the four men who deserted were lacking in both.”

  “That’s exactly how I feel,” Hattie said. “That was justice, the Comanches capturing them.”

  Rachel and Elizabeth quickly agreed, and Mac sighed with relief. The worst of it was over, but there was still one condition upon which Captain Stockton had insisted.

  “Trinity, Hattie, Rachel, and Elizabeth,” Mac said, “Stockton demanded that all of you leave Fort Griffin. He insisted that since I brought you here, I should take you away when we move on. Do any of you object to going on to Austin with us?”

  “I think you know the answer to that,” said Trinity. “When do we start?”

  “I have permission for us to visit the sutler’s store,” Mac replied. “I reckon we’ll stay here through tomorrow. But nobody goes in alone.”

  “We’ve used nearly all our muslin for bandages,” said Trinity, “and unless there’s some whiskey that I don’t know about, there’s only part of a bottle left.”

  “We’ll need plenty for snake bite,” Gourd Snively said. “I got the snake in a jug, in my wagon.”

  It was graphic frontier humor, and drew a laugh, even from the women.

  “Some of us will have to stay with the wagons at all times,” said Mac. “Port, you and your boys can go in a group. When you’re done, and return to the wagons, the rest of us will go in. Let’s wait until the morning. We’ll stand watch as usual tonight.”

  For the first time since leaving Dodge City, Mac realized he could think of Trinity as a widow, a single woman, without the specter of a no-account husband coming between them. He doubted any of the women would sleep much during the coming night, for they would be making plans for Austin, and each would be tasting freedom as a result of what they had learned at Fort Griffin.

  Mac and his outfit had just finished breakfast when two riders left the fort and rode away to the southeast.

  “They was sure lookin’ this way,” Red observed, “like they wanted to know somethin’ about our business.”

  “According to Captain Stockton,” said Mac, “everybody already knows about us, our destination, as well as our cargo. Remember, all of you, if anybody at the sutler’s comes on strong, back off. We’ll answer no questions.”

  “None of us will be there long enough to arouse any curiosity,” Port Guthrie said. “We’re just needin’ some plug and some Durham.”

  “You gents go ahead, then,” said Mac. “We may be there a while.”

  The teamsters were gone less than an hour.

  “The place was packed with soldiers,” Port Guthrie said, “and they looked at us like we wasn’t very welcome. You’d best keep that in mind.”

  “We will,” said Mac. “Thanks.”

  “I reckon we need to talk some, before we visit the sutler’s,” Red said. “We’re playin’ with dynamite, taking four women into a fort where there’s likely nothin’ but men.”

  “We don’t have to go,” said Trinity. “We know the post commander doesn’t want us here.”

  “All the more reason you should go,” Mac replied. “You’ll go with me, Hattie will go with Red, Rachel will go with Buck, and Elizabeth will go with Haze. As far as Stockton is concerned, each of you will have an escort. If anybody starts trouble, we’ll finish it.”

  “I like that,” said Hattie. “Let’s go.”

  Port Guthrie had been right about one thing. The sutler’s was teeming with soldiers. Mac wondered if Captain Stockton had forbidden the men to leave the fort and approach the wagons. That would account for the sudden interest in the sutler’s store, especially if the word had spread there were women with the wagons. Since the teamsters had already been to the store, there was reason to believe the women might come later.

  “Let’s not become too widely separated,” Mac said, as they were about to enter the store. “There’s undoubtedly a saloon in here.”

  There was a saloon, and it seemed that every soldier who could arrange to be there was on hand. They spilled out of the saloon and into the store, and for a few moments they stared in silence. But all that changed in an instant.

  “By God,” a burly private shouted, “she-males!”

  He seized Hattie in a bear hug, and she retaliated with a knee in his groin. Grunting like a wounded grizzly, he doubled over just in time for his bearded chin to collide with Red’s fist. Another soldier went after Trinity. Seizing the only thing handy—a kerosene lantern—she slammed it into his face. Mac already had his hands full, slugging it out with a sergeant who outweighed him by fifty pounds. When Mac went down, his assailant straddled him with the intention of slamming his head into the wooden floor, but Trinity got her hands on an axe handle and clubbed him unconscious. Buck and Haze had their shirts ripped off, and were beaten to the floor by sheer numbers.

  “Stop it!” Trinity shouted. “You’re killing them!”

  She was ignored and the brawl continued, becoming more brutal by the minute. With Trinity leading the charge, the women went to the defense of their outnumbered men. A long-handled shovel became a deadly weapon in the hands of Hattie, and men bawled curses as they were battered and bloodied. A display of tinned goods was toppled, and Elizabeth and Rachel began throwing tinned tomatoes and peaches with unerring aim. Trinity clutched the bail of a kerosene lantern in each hand, slamming the lanterns against the heads of the struggling, cursing soldiers. Finally even the women went down under the onslaught. When it seemed nothing could stop it, there was the thunder of a shot and a bawling voice of authority that struck terror into the heart of every soldier, drunk or sober.

  “Damn it, on your feet, every man of you!”

  There were ten military policemen with billy clubs. Captain Stockton stood there with a smoking Colt in his hand, his weathered face flaming with fury. Slowly, painfully, the soldiers got to their feet, those who were able. Some of those struck by Trinity’s lanterns lay unconscious, their heads bloody. Mac got to his hands and knees, his shirt in shreds, and found Trinity beside him. She had fared no better, and was half naked. Red was helping Hattie to her feet. There was a nasty cut above her eyes, and her face was a mask of blood. Rachel leaned weakly on Buck, while Haze leaned over Elizabeth. She appeared to be unconscious. At that point, Captain Stockton said exactly the wrong thing.

  “Tunstall, I am holding you responsible for this.”

  Beaten and bloody as he was, Mac stumbled to his
feet. He said nothing until his face was only inches from Stockton’s. When he spoke, his voice was barely more than a whisper, but it was cold, deadly.

  “Stockton, we defended ourselves when we were attacked, nothing more. Now if you are hell-bent on punishing somebody, there’s blue bellies all around you. If you try to lay the blame for this on us, after your men started it, you’d better go ahead and shoot me. If you don’t, by God, I’ll see you cashiered out of the military, if I have to crawl to Washington on my hands and knees.”

  “Captain,” said the sutler, “he’s right. The soldiers started it by molesting the women. The bar’s been six-deep with soldiers, ever since I opened the doors. The men was totally snockered, and they just went crazy.”

  Captain Stockton looked about him. Only four of his men stood unsteadily on their feet. The others—either beaten unconscious or in a drunken stupor—still lay sprawled on the floor. Stockton then spoke to the sergeant in charge of the military policemen.

  “Sergeant, these men are to be taken to the guardhouse. Have the medic see to those who are injured. I’ll deal with them in the morning.”

  With Haze supporting her, Elizabeth was able to stand. Stockton looked from one of the women to the other. They were battered and bloody, their clothing ripped or missing to the point of indecency, but they held their heads high, glaring at Stockton in undaunted, fire-eyed defiance.

  “I don’t consider you blameless, Tunstall,” Captain Stockton said, “but I’ll settle for you leaving this post immediately, with your assurance that you won’t return.”

  “Captain,” said Mac, “I promise you we won’t come here again, if we’re pursued by Comanches. But we came here for a few things we needed, and we won’t be leaving until we get them.”

  “Then have the sutler get them for you,” Stockton said stiffly. “I’m standing here until I see the lot of you out that gate.”

  The sutler made a list and quickly gathered the requested items. Mac paid, and without a word, he led his battered outfit from the store, past the sentry, and through the front gate.

  “I’ve seen some bastards in my time,” said Red grimly, “but he takes a prize, the fur-lined slop bucket.”

  “I reckon we should have left you ladies with the wagons,” Buck said.

  “I’m glad you didn’t,” said Rachel. “You needed all the help you could get.”

  “Under the circumstances,” Mac said, “all of you conducted yourselves quite well. I just hope you have a change of clothes in the wagon.”

  “I can stand being near naked,” said Hattie, “but blind is something else. My eyes are full of dried blood.”

  “Red can lead you to the river,” Trinity said, “and you can duck your head.”

  “I’m glad we’re going to be here another night,” said Elizabeth. “It’ll take us the rest of the day, doctoring our cuts and cleaning ourselves up.”

  “You sound a little down,” Hattie said. “Don’t tell me you didn’t enjoy that.”

  “Oh, but I did,” said Elizabeth. “I’ve never been knocked unconscious before, on the floor of a saloon, with three drunken soldiers piled on me.”

  “You played hell with some of them, before they put you down,” Haze said, with some admiration.

  Port Guthrie and the rest of the teamsters saw them coming long before they reached the wagons.

  “A damn shame we had to stay with the wagons,” Lafe Beard observed. “I’d of liked to show that bunch how the cow et the cabbage.”

  “We give ’em as good as we got,” said Red.

  “We’ve been ordered to stay off the post,” Mac said. “We’ll keep our usual watch tonight and move out tomorrow at first light.”

  What he left unsaid was far more important than what he said. There was a possibility that some of the soldiers, seeking revenge, might come prowling around the wagons.

  “We ought to go downstream, out of sight of the fort, and dunk ourselves in the river,” said Trinity.

  “No,” Mac said. “Build a fire, heat some water, and do your bathing in your wagon. When you’re done, Red, Buck, Haze, and me will do the same.”

  By suppertime, all the blood had been bathed away and wounds attended.

  “Before we got on the bad side of everybody at the fort,” said Buck, “we should have learned how far we are from the Colorado.”

  “We know it’s dead ahead of us,” Mac said. “We’ll have to be satisfied with that.”

  Mac, Red, Buck, and Haze took over at the start of the third watch, and none of them were surprised to find the women gathered around the bed of coals on which the coffeepot bubbled. Now that the uncertainty of Fort Griffin was behind them, they were ready to commit themselves to a new life with a quartet of Texas cowboys they had known only a few weeks. When Trinity arrived, Mac was waiting for her.

  “Back home,” Trinity said, “our conduct would have been disgraceful, but I don’t feel disgraced. Aside from being bruised and sore, I feel like I’ve been through the fire. The others feel the same way.”

  “If anybody should feel disgraced, it’s the bunch that jumped us,” said Mac. “I’d not be in the least surprised if word gets around, and Captain Stockton has to justify all that happened in the sutler’s store. On the frontier, there’s nothing disgraceful about defending yourself. You’re disgraced if you don’t.”

  “I’d be tempted to accuse Captain Stockton of spreading the word that we were going to be on the post, but how could he have known?”

  “Easy enough,” Mac replied. “After talking to Stockton, before I left the post, I got permission from the sergeant of the guard for us to visit the sutler’s. It would have been proper military procedure for him to have told Stockton. But I can’t imagine him having anything to do with that brawl.”

  “I can,” said Trinity. “He hated the four deserters he blames for the death of his brother, and he hates Hattie, Rachel, Elizabeth, and me for coming here and opening old wounds. Wouldn’t the rest of the men on the post be equally bitter toward those four who deserted under fire?”

  “I reckon they would,” Mac agreed, “although some of them might have deserted if they’d been involved in a sure-death fight with Comanches. But what we think of Fort Griffin and what Fort Griffin thinks of us no longer matters. We accomplished what we came here to do. Are you satisfied with what you’ve learned?”

  “Yes,” said Trinity. “I’ve talked to Hattie, Elizabeth, and Rachel, and we believe what Captain Stockton told you pretty well agreed with what we expected of the men we were looking for. If he had been more honest with us at the beginning, our coming west would have been unnecessary.”

  “And I’d never have met you,” Mac said.

  “I’ve thought of that, too,” said Trinity, “and in an odd sort of way, I suppose we owe Captain Stockton a debt of gratitude.”

  “Maybe,” Mac agreed, “but I’d be hung upside down over a slow fire, before I’d ever have him know it.”

  Hattie and Red had put everything having to do with Fort Griffin behind them.

  “You’re stuck with me now,” Hattie said. “I could never go back East.”

  “But you have family and friends there,” Red replied.

  “Yes,” said Hattie, “in a little town where everybody knows everybody else, along with everybody else’s business. I’ve been in the West only a few weeks, but I’ll never leave it. What will your family and friends say, when you show up with me?”

  “Pretty as you are, I reckon they’ll be struck dumb with admiration,” Red replied. “In fact, I know they will be, when they learn you can hold your own in a saloon fight.”

  “Surely you won’t tell anyone about that.”

  Red laughed. “Oh, I’ll have to. That’s the stuff of which legends are made. You’ll be the envy of every woman in Texas.”

  Buck and Rachel were discussing an entirely different matter.

  “Now that Fort Griffin’s behind us, and you know you’re a free woman,” Buck said, “you might
as well know the truth about me.”

  “Oh?” said Rachel. “You’re not afraid of girls, are you?”

  “Only them that can stand their ground in a saloon brawl,” Buck said.

  “Besides that?”

  “I don’t own a damn thing except my horse, saddle, and bedroll,” said Buck.

  “Are you bragging or complaining?”

  “Complaining, I reckon,” Buck said. “A woman’s got a right to expect more than that of a man.”

  “Who told you that?”

  “I . . . well . . . I dunno,” said Buck. “What do you expect?”

  “A man who’ll stand beside me, who won’t run at the first sign of trouble,” Rachel said. “That’s all I want.”

  “I may never have anything else to offer,” said Buck, “but you’ll have that.”

  “I know it,” Rachel said, “and I’m not exactly empty-handed. I have a little over three hundred dollars. Is that enough to start a ranch?”

  “A bull and maybe twenty-five cows,” said Buck. “I’ll have a hundred and fifty dollars when we finally get to Austin. We can have our own brand.”

  “We can call it the BR,” Rachel said. “Buck and Rachel.”

  “Or the B-R Connected.”

  She laughed. “I like that even better.”

  Hattie, enjoying her newfound freedom, sat beside Red on a wagon tongue. Each had a black eye, and Hattie had a bandage around her head.

  “There’s one thing I wish we hadn’t learned at Fort Griffin,” Hattie said. “I wish that everybody didn’t know about these wagons bound for Austin, and what they’re hauling. I’m just afraid something’s going to happen.”

  “I wish I could tell you that nothing will, and be sure of it,” said Red, “but I’ll have to admit anything’s possible. The war ain’t that far behind us, and Texas is full of hombres without a pot and a window to throw it out. We’ll have to keep our eyes open and our guns handy.”

  Haze was having his problems with Elizabeth’s misgivings.

  “I don’t like what I’ve seen of the military,” Elizabeth said, “and I only wish they all didn’t know about the guns and ammunition being freighted to Austin. What’s to stop some of the soldiers from banding together, shooting us, and taking the wagons?”