Caroline smeared the black grease on the left axle and wheel hub while Pauliina held up the side of the handcart. Finishing quickly, Caroline shoved the wheel back on the axle. The locknut was screwed on and tightened to hold the wheel. The two girls moved to the opposite sides of the cart and began to repeat the process.
Caroline saw other people in the camp performing the thrice-weekly ritual of greasing the wheels of their vehicles. The task must be accomplished that day. The next day was Sunday, the Sabbath, and absolutely no work could be done on that holy day.
Ruth knelt and cooked supper over a small fire of dry brambles she had carried from the woods along the creek west of camp. Mathias had pushed the caravan hard until almost dark to reach a stream he called Brush Creek, where there was water and fuel. Sophia was arranging the canvas and poles on the ground in preparation for raising the tent.
The four Texans walked in between the handcarts and into the light cast by the cooking fires. Caroline saw Ash and Jake immediately turn to head toward Sophia and Pauliina. The remaining Texans separated and went off to two other groups of women. The man she had rebuffed, whose name she had learned was Nathan, began to talk with the redheaded Emily. The woman smiled most pleasantly at the Texan.
For the first time Caroline wished she were clothed in a dress and bonnet, as were Sophia and Ruth and nearly all the other women. Still, Pauliina was wearing a man’s trousers and shirt, the same as Caroline, and Jake apparently found her attractive.
DeBreen and three of his men came into the circle of carts. Caroline disliked the trapper leader, for she was certain he was a rogue and a scoundrel.
DeBreen wound his way near to Mathias, who was in conversation with some of the men of the handcart company. The other trappers fanned out among the women.
Caroline looked one last time at Nathan and then went back to greasing the wheel of the cart.
Jake came up, spoke to Pauliina, and took the side of the cart from her hands. He held it lightly, as if it were a matchstick.
“Texan, come help me set up the tent,” Sophia said to Ash.
“That would be my pleasure, handcart woman,” Ash responded with a wide grin.
***
Nathan felt at ease as he sat and talked with the redheaded Emily. Her smile was pleasant and infectious, often causing him to smile in return. Now and again she would reach out and touch his hand to emphasize what she said. Nathan found the contact stirred him in a manly way.
One of DeBreen’s men, a sour-faced individual, came and started a conversation with one of the women in an adjacent group. Nathan noted the man’s arrival and then continued his conversation with Emily.
He saw Jake and Ash finish helping the women rig up the tent. Then the two men and the four women began to talk by the fire.
A whisper of sound came from beyond the circle of handcarts. Nathan came instantly to his feet, twisting to look, his hand reaching for his pistol. A figure was materializing from the night, black from black.
A gaunt young man rode his horse into the light near Nathan. The horse halted. The man’s eyes swept over the assemblage, slowing to study each man in buckskins.
Nathan saw the drawn, taut features of the rider. Nathan had seen that expression before—cold, hard hate.
The horseman looked at Nathan. “Is that DeBreen over there?” He spoke in a flat, emotionless voice and nodded across the enclosed area to where DeBreen was talking with Mathias.
“Yes,” Nathan said.
“How long has he been here?” Sam asked.
“I only just arrived, so I don’t know for sure. But I’ve been told he’s been here two days or so.”
Without another word the rider swung down. He dropped the reins of the horse to ground-tie it. He loosened his pistol, in its holster on his side, and started across the camp.
Sam walked steadily, closing the distance to his enemy by half. “Are you DeBreen?” Sam asked, his voice ringing throughout the camp.
All the conversation ceased and the people turned to see who was calling so loudly.
DeBreen whirled around, his hand swinging to hang near his pistol. A new arrival, a man he didn’t know, was coming straight at him. DeBreen heard the antagonism in the stranger’s voice, saw it in the way he walked. Who was he?
“I’m DeBreen.”
“You were on the upper Missouri in early March.” It was a statement, not a question.
DeBreen shrugged his big shoulders. “Maybe I was. And then again, maybe I wasn’t. What’s it to you?”
Sam said nothing. He stopped to stare unblinkingly at DeBreen. Several seconds passed.
“What do you want?” DeBreen’s voice rose belligerently. “Are you deaf?”
Sam made no response. His eyes bore into DeBreen. He was holding his anger at bay, savoring this moment of finally seeing his foe eye to eye. In a few seconds he would pull his revolver and empty every cylinder into the white skin of the murderous river pirate.
“I think the fellow’s crazy,” DeBreen said in a mocking tone.
Mathias knew the man was not crazy. But the light that burned in his eyes told that violence was near. Mathias spoke. “My name is Rowley. This is my camp. I don’t want the women or children hurt.”
Sam glanced to the side and looked into Rowley’s worried face. The man’s request was a fair one. Sam could not fight DeBreen here. “I’ll not do anything to cause harm to your women and children,” Sam said. He wheeled around and started back toward his horse.
Abruptly Sam halted. He recognized Ruth Crandall sitting by one of the fires. Her sensitive features were full of apprehension. He veered in her direction.
Ruth remembered the frail young trapper who had come to her father’s place of business in St. Joe. He still seemed old beyond his years, but his step was firm and he seemed stronger.
“Hello, Miss Crandall,” Sam said, removing his hat from his head.
Ruth climbed to her feet and straightened her dress. “Hello, Mr. Wilde. I’m surprised to see you.”
“Not as surprised as I am to find you this far from St. Joe. Where are you bound?”
“To Salt Lake City.”
Ruth saw Sam’s sudden understanding of what that meant. She did not like his look of disapproval.
“You have joined up with the Mormons?”
She nodded without speaking.
Sam shuffled from one foot to the other. He would like to continue a conversation with Ruth, but nearly every person in camp was listening, and he did not know what to say. However, he should tell her what kind of man DeBreen was. “May we talk tomorrow?”
“Certainly, if you want.” Ruth recalled how he had looked at her when they had last met. That same expression of awe, as if he were viewing something of great value, was in his eyes now. Most pleasing.
“Good. Until then. I’ll look you up.”
“I won’t be hard to find.” Ruth smiled at the serious young man.
Sam moved to his horse and picked up the reins. He spoke to Nathan. “You are not with the Mormons or DeBreen?”
“That’s right. I came up from Texas with some other fellows.” Nathan evaluated the man. Obviously he was a foe of DeBreen. That just might make him a friend of Nathan’s. There was going to be trouble with DeBreen; Nathan was sure of that. The Texans were outnumbered, and he did not think the Mormons could be counted on to fight. Another gun would be valuable.
Nathan spoke. “You’re welcome to camp with us tonight. After that little meeting with DeBreen you may need somebody to watch your back.”
“All right. I’ve got two Indian ponies out there on the prairie that I must pick up first.”
“I’ll show you where our camp is,” Nathan said.
The two men went into the darkness.
Sam spoke as they walked along. “I saw only three of DeBreen’s men. Do you know where the other seven are tonight?”
“You mean the other five?”
“No, seven. I’ve followed them all the way from St. Joe, and from Florence, rode on their tracks. I can count. DeBreen has ten men riding with him.”
“I’ve seen only seven. I think we’d better talk about this.”
***
At the Texans’ camp Nathan kindled a small fire for light. Then Sam and he sat and talked across the flames.
As Sam told his story the other Texans came one by one, emerging from the dark and seating themselves. They listened silently.
“I plan to kill DeBreen,” Sam said, ending his tale.
“Then why did you face him there at the Mormon camp?” Nathan said. “He will soon figure out you survived the river ambush and be warned.”
“I had planned to shoot him on the spot. But that Mormon fellow asked me not to start a fight. So I had to back off.”
“I think DeBreen will be coming after you.”
A twisted, contorted smile came to Sam’s face, his hate making him an ugly young man. “That’s all right too,” he said.
“I’ve learned something else,” Ash said. “Sophia told me three Mormon men have vanished since DeBreen came. Two were on guard duty and could not be found when the reliefs came. Their rifles were gone too. Now the Mormons have just one rifle and one pistol. The third man went off to fetch wood and never came back. DeBreen tells Rowley the Indians must have taken the men.”
“Sam says DeBreen has two other men around someplace,” Nathan said. “They could be responsible for the disappearance of the Mormons and not the Indians. I have a feeling that DeBreen plans to destroy all the Mormons.”
“I agree,” Nathan replied. “And that explains why he tried to run us off. But why does he want the Mormons dead?” Nathan tossed some wood on the fire and thoughtfully watched the shower of sparks rise straight up in the still air.
“Maybe he just hates Mormons,” Sam said into the silence.
“We can’t let anything happen to the women,” Jake said. “We may have to take on DeBreen and his men.”
“We now know there would be eleven men against us in a fight,” Nathan said. “Even with Sam to help us, we’d be outnumbered nearly two to one.”
“From the looks of them I’d judge they would be tough fighters too,” Les said. “Especially DeBreen. But even so, we can’t let them kill the Mormons.
“The answer is simple,” Sam said. He extended his empty hand, as if it held a pistol. He slowly pulled the trigger on the imaginary weapon. “We’ll catch them apart from each other. I’ll kill DeBreen, and then, when they no longer have a leader, we can kill two or three at a time without too much danger to us.”
“Start our own war?” Nathan asked.
“Exactly,” Sam replied.
“I don’t know about that,” Nathan said. “Let’s sleep on it.”
***
Nathan awoke as the half-moon slid below the horizon. He heard Sam arise and move off in the darkness. He thought he knew where the man was going.
Nathan lay and mulled over what Sam had said about starting a war to whittle away at DeBreen’s larger force. There was logic to that proposal.
An hour later Sam returned, coming through the darkness as silently as a shadow.
“Are DeBreen and his men still in their camp?” Nathan asked.
“So you’re awake and thinking the same thing as me?” Sam said. “Yeah, they’re still there. There’ll be no trouble from them tonight.”
***
The morning was bright with light when Nathan awoke. This was the latest he had slept in days. He looked toward the Mormon camp, located some two hundred yards away. On this Sunday the people were late in rising.
He buckled on his pistol and ambled toward the creek, lined with big sycamore, oak, and walnut trees. In the sky a hunting hawk came gliding down from the north, its head angled down and its keen eyes scouring the grass-covered ground for prey. Just as the hawk reached the creek it banked steeply away, and its wings pumped hard for a few swift strokes. Something in the trees had frightened the bird.
Nathan stole upstream, then into the woods. The band of trees was not more than fifty yards wide, growing only on the narrow floodplain, where the creek water supplied moisture to their roots.
He moved stealthily from one silent morning shadow to the next. The sound of splashing water and a woman’s voice humming a song came to him.