Jubal Sackett (1985) (32 page)

Surprised, he looked at me. "We met a man of yours, fleeing ahead of you and bound for the settlements."

His face shadowed. "Gomez!" he said. "Ah, that one is trouble!"

"We knew nothing of him. We fed him and he went his way, but with no liking for us, I think."

"He likes only himself," Diego said. His men had gotten down and come to the fire as to a cold spring. These were beaten men.

"You've had a fight, then? With the Conejeros?"

"With some others, strange Indians. They attacked us at once. I lost two men that first time and four since. They were hard upon us until we slipped away in the night."

We were beside a small stream with trees close by and a good defensive position.

He noticed my guns. "Handsome pistols. I would buy them from you."

"No. They were given me by my father. They are the best of their kind, made by a master in Italy."

"I was apprenticed to an armorer," he said. "I knew them at once. I knew the workmanship. You have a fine pair of pistols."

He glanced at Itchakomi, standing beside me. "Your woman?"

"My wife," I said, "by an Indian marriage, which I hold as a true one. You don't have a friar among you? Or a priest?"

"He was killed, died well, too. A game man." He glanced at me. "You wish to be married again?"

"I am a Christian," I said, "although not a Catholic. I'd like to be married again by a Christian sacrament."

"She's beautiful," he said simply, "and proud."

"Among her own people, the Natchee, she is a Sun, a princess."

"I can believe it," he said.

He walked to the fire, and the Ponca woman passed him a bowl of broth made from the elk meat. He tasted it greedily and then, shamed, looked quickly around to be sure his men were eating. They were, but I liked him for it. The Spanishmen had been our enemies, but this was a man fit to walk upon the mountains.

"Sit you," I said. "I'll care for your horses."

His hand came up sharply. "No! My men will do that. Nobody touches our horses!" Then more gently he said, "They are few and hard to come upon. We bring them up from Mexico, and the Indios have taken to stealing them. Soon they will be riding them against us."

"Indians who ride?"

"I have seen a few," Diego replied grimly, "and they ride well, too!"

He ate, and then looked at me. "English?"

"My father was. I am American."

He smiled quizzically. "American? What is that? I have not heard the name before."

"I was born in this land." Pausing, I gestured to the south. "I shall set up a trading post. You are welcome to trade.'

"It will not be allowed," he said. "This is Spanish land."

"We are befriending you now, and could again. It might serve the Spanish well to have a friend out here, and not an enemy."

He shrugged. "I do not decide. There are regulations from the king."

He ate in silence until his bowl was empty. Then he cut a slice from a haunch of elk meat. "I will speak for you," he said. "I think it a good idea."

"Gomez hoped to reach the settlements before you," I said. "He has plans of his own."

"Gomez is always planning," Diego said. "I know him."

Keokotah had chosen a sleeping place for us among the rocks on a soft stretch of grass. We gathered there and left the Spanish by the fire. Most of them had fallen asleep right where they were, too tired to even think of defense.

We could even have stolen their horses.

Chapter
Thirty.

Through the long day that followed, Diego and his men rested, and well they needed it. Haggard and driven, they had suffered a grievous defeat, but it was a time for learning. Here were men who had met strange Indians from the north--some of the Spanish were calling them Komantsi--and had fought them and escaped.

Diego had coffee, and he shared it with us. Over the fire we sat to talk, and Itchakomi sat with me.

"Fierce men who love to fight." Diego looked over the rim of his cup at me. "They take no prisoners, want none. They want horses," he added, "and they know how to handle them. If you stay here you will be killed."

He sipped his coffee, his eyes straying again and again to the hills. "They were not many, but their attack was sudden, without warning. They came upon us at break of day. Only a few of us were armed and ready. An arrow killed our sentry and then they charged upon us.

"I had my sword, and when I had once fired my pistol, it was only the sword. Then they were gone, as swiftly as they had come.

"They attacked us again while we marched, and then again. After that we waited until night and moved away into the mountains. I hope we do not bring them upon you."

"There will be tracks," I reminded.

"We tried to leave none," Diego said, "but with so many men and the horses ..." he shrugged.

For a long time we were silent. Itchakomi moved away from the fire. We were making ready to go south to the place we had chosen.

She looked at me. "What we do?"

"Go back where we planned to build," I said. "It is a good place."

"You fear these Komantsi?"

"There are always enemies. These may be no worse than others." I paused and then said, "Komi, I do not wish to take you into the wilderness until we are married."

"We are not?"

"By your standards, yes. By mine, yes. But I wish a marriage that will be accepted by other Christians. My heart knows who is my wife, but other white people will not recognize our wedding. I wish it to be official, so no one will say you are just an Indian girl who shares my lodge."

"Very well. We stay. We build lodge."

Diego had fallen asleep by the fire. His men were lying about, also resting. "Sleep," I said to Keokotah. "I will watch."

There was no movement in our camp. All rested or were busy in one position. The horses had been taken into the willows near the stream where they were well hidden. I found a small knoll where I could move about among trees and rocks and yet remain unseen, and I moved rarely, only to look about, studying the hills for enemies.

It was a time for thinking. To proceed south to Santa Fe for a proper marriage would put me into the hands of those who considered themselves my enemies. I would be imprisoned and probably sent in chains to Mexico for trial. What would happen to Itchakomi one could only guess, for despite the regulations laid down by the Spanish king forbidding enslavement of the Indians, it was done.

The Spanish would not accept my venture into their territory as being anything but a spying mission. Nor would they permit the establishment of a trading post by anyone not of their own. Diego was a practical soldier, but only a soldier and with no authority except over his own command. Diego was practical enough to realize that a post where they might obtain food or other supplies was much to be desired. There was always a difference of viewpoint between the soldier in the field and the man behind the desk.

So, from the Spanish I could expect nothing but trouble, and I would certainly hear again from Gomez.

The Komantsi were another risk. It was possible I might win them over, at least to tolerating my presence.

We would build a fort, but we would arrange an escape route, scouted and planned. We would have to secure trade goods, and we could trap for fur. At first it would be very difficult. Very difficult, indeed!

When I went back into camp Diego was up and seated by the fire. I filled a cup with coffee and sat across the fire from him.

"You know the land to the west?"

He shook his head. "We do not. Some patrols have gone there, and some have gone north, much farther than this, but we know little of the country."

"The wild game?"

He shrugged. "What you know. Buffalo, elk, deer, antelope, bear--"

"Nothing larger?"

"Than a buffalo? What could be? We have seen them that weigh three thousand pounds, big bulls, very tough, very strong."

"Bears?"

"Ah! There you have it. There are silver bears, very large. We have seen them. Black bears, also, but smaller. The silver bears--ah, they are huge! Very fierce!"

We talked long, and I thought him a friendly and a lonely man, pleased to be speaking with someone on a friendly basis.

"Coronado," he said, "went far out upon the plains. He looked for golden cities. I think there are no golden cities. I think from far off someone sees the cities of mud, what is called adobe, and in the setting sun they look like gold. I think that is all."

"There is no gold in the mountains?"

He shrugged. "Of course, but the mining is hard and the Indies do not like it. They die ... too many die! I feel sad, but who am I? I am a soldier, who does what he is told."

At dawn we arose and walked the few miles back to where we planned to build. There we said good-bye and he thanked us again for feeding his soldiers and treating their wounds. We shook hands, and to Itchakomi he bowed low.

At the last, he turned and said, "Be careful! That Gomez ... he is a man of no morals. He wishes only for himself. He has no feelings. Yet he is a good fighter, better than me, and I fear he will have made it hard for me when I return. But do you beware. He will return. He will believe you have found gold, and only three things he wants, gold, power, and women."

He walked off down the valley after his men. Each man who had a horse led it. There would be need for their strength and speed later.

The place we finally settled upon was between two canyons that led off to the north northeast. They would lead, I thought, to the place where the big canyon opened and the river flowed down into the plains.

How fared our friends, the Natchee? If they had survived the river and the Indians at the canyon's mouth they would be well down the river by now.

For four days we worked, rolling rocks into place and settling them into the earth for a foundation, building a quick wall of defense so we might have time to build better, and further back.

Keokotah--like any other Indian--was unaccustomed to hard manual labor. Always he had been a hunter and a warrior, so I left the hunting and the scouting to him. He was willing to help, but he lacked the skills and the slights necessary. There was little in the life of an Indian that demanded labor of the kind needed. Some Indians built stockades, but these were the work of many people working together. The lodges of the Kickapoo were, I understood, though I had not seen one, domed affairs made of bark laid over a framework.

Building was not new to me. At Shooting Creek we had built largely and well, with the aid of men who knew much of such things, of notching logs and fitting them, of working with axe, saw, and adz.

Now I had planning to do as well as building, and several times I sat late by the fire drawing a rough plan on a piece of aspen bark.

The low hill where we intended to build was the source of a spring whose water trickled down to a small stream that flowed northeastward into a canyon. The top of the hill was mostly open, but I rolled the few scattered boulders to the outer edge of the hill to form part of a wall. There were trees growing and I trimmed their lower branches, constructing my house to use the trees as posts for added strength. Having no axe--only the hatchet I carried as a tomahawk--I had to choose from among the many downed trees the ones most solid and seasoned.

The top of the knoll made for good drainage, and again I used the device of cutting notches into the living trees to support my roof poles.

By nightfall I had the frame of the roof in place for a house of several rooms and considerable space. Around the perimeter of the hill I had rolled rocks to fill natural gaps in the rocks that rimmed the hill. It was a good defensive position with a view to all approaches.

During the days that followed I worked unceasingly, from dawn until dark and often long after dark, sitting by the fire to carve spoons, cups, and trenchers, the large wooden platters from which we would eat, just as they did in England.

Keokotah hunted far afield, eyes alert for enemies. He brought in a deer, an antelope, and several sage hens. He found no tracks of men but several of the huge bears of which we had heard. "Leave them alone," I advised. "We don't need meat that bad."

West of our valley were the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, so named by the Spanish, as we had learned from Diego. They were a long, high ridge beyond which lay another, much larger valley. Keokotah had seen it from afar.

The Ponca woman, sturdy and quiet but always busy, found a granary in a natural rock shelter. An overhang had been walled in, leaving only a small window for access, and had been made into a storage place for grain. Some scattered corncobs lay about, all very small, but on the floor of the granary we found a half dozen cobs that still had grains of corn and maize.

With a sharp stick she made holes, and into each she dropped a kernel of corn. How old the corn was we had no idea, but we hoped it would grow.

Here and there we found signs of previous occupation, where some unknown people had lived for a time and passed on.