CHAPTER 27
Lieutenant Tyler’s horse was fast, but Jamie’s big stallion had more speed and stamina. If this chase had been taking place during the day, Jamie would have caught up fairly quickly.
The fact that it was dark, though, make him hold back his mount to a certain extent. He couldn’t let the stallion run at full speed because of the chance that the horse might stumble and hurt himself or even take a spill.
O’Connor was fueled by fear for his life, though, so he wasn’t that careful. Jamie could hear the swift rataplan of hoofbeats in the distance ahead of him as O’Connor rode hell-bent for leather.
Even so, the stallion’s long strides began to make a difference. Jamie could tell by the sound of the horse he was pursuing that he was cutting the gap. After several minutes, he was able to see O’Connor up ahead, in the dim light from the moon and stars.
The army camp was about half a mile away. Jamie could see the small fires burning there. He wanted to catch up to O’Connor before the sergeant reached the camp. If O’Connor got there first, Jamie wouldn’t be able to take him back to the Crow village, and that would put even more of a strain on the situation.
Since they were on a flat, straight stretch now, Jamie let the stallion have his head. The big horse loved to run and practically flew over the ground. He drew up almost alongside the horse O’Connor had taken from Lieutenant Tyler.
Without warning, O’Connor twisted in the saddle and slashed at Jamie with something. Jamie saw moonlight reflect off the object and realized O’Connor had a saber in his hand. Jamie jerked back. The blade barely missed him. While O’Connor was a little off-balance from that, Jamie crowded in, hoping to get a hand on O’Connor and unseat him.
Instead, O’Connor whipped the saber at Jamie’s face in a snake-quick backhand, and again, Jamie practically felt the cold steel kiss his skin.
Jamie didn’t wait for O’Connor to recover and try again. He launched himself from the saddle in a diving tackle that carried him into the other man with bone-jarring force. O’Connor let out a startled yell as they both toppled from horseback and crashed to the ground.
The impact of landing broke them apart. Jamie rolled over several times before coming to a stop on his belly. He pushed himself onto hands and knees and lifted his head to look around, searching for O’Connor as the horses continued running toward the army camp.
Jamie spotted O’Connor a few yards away. The sergeant was sprawled on his back. He rolled onto his side and groaned as he shook his head groggily.
Knowing that he needed to seize the advantage, Jamie forced himself to his feet and started toward O’Connor. O’Connor was stunned, but not so much that he didn’t hear Jamie coming. He rolled again and slashed upward with the saber. Somehow he had managed to hang on to it.
Jamie caught himself just in time to keep the blade from ripping through his guts. He darted to the side to come at O’Connor from a different angle, but O’Connor twisted on the ground and jabbed upward with the saber, forcing Jamie to jump back again. That gave O’Connor time to get his other hand and a knee underneath him and push himself up.
“Come on, you son of a bitch,” he gasped as he stood unsteadily and waved the saber back and forth in the air in front of him. “I’ll cut you to pieces, you Indian-lovin’ bastard!”
Jamie’s Colt was still in its holster. His fingers brushed against the weapon’s grips as he stood there trying to catch his breath. He was sorely tempted to haul out the hogleg and blow a hole through O’Connor.
That would sure simplify matters.
But it might not be the best solution in the long run, the course of action that would stand the greatest chance of preserving the peace between the whites and the Crow. Preacher claimed that once folks back east realized there wasn’t a good route for wagon trains through the mountains in this area after all, the whites wouldn’t have any more reason to come this way and possibly run into problems with the Crow.
Jamie knew it wouldn’t stay like that in the long run, though. He had seen how settlers were spreading out in every direction, all the time. He knew how many thousands—no, millions—of people there were who dreamed of making a new start and finding a new home in the West. The frontier was an irresistible lure that would always be answered, as long as people had hopes and dreams.
And that meant the whites were coming. Maybe not in great numbers, maybe not anytime soon, but they would be here, even in this wild, untamed country, and it wouldn’t do anybody any good for the current inhabitants to hate them before they ever got here.
Those thoughts raced through Jamie’s mind in a split second as he considered gunning down O’Connor and getting it over with. He discarded the idea. There had to be rule of law if civilization was going to get a toehold here. Might as well start establishing it now.
Jamie feinted to his right. O’Connor jerked and swung the saber that way. Jamie lunged in and got his left hand on O’Connor’s wrist as the sergeant tried to recover and launch a backhand. Jamie thrust up and forced the blade away from him.
At the same time, his right hand shot out and closed around O’Connor’s throat. His fingers clamped down hard to shut off the man’s breath. O’Connor stumbled backward a couple of steps, Jamie going with him. If he could hold off that saber long enough, he could choke O’Connor into unconsciousness . . .
O’Connor tried to hammer punches into Jamie’s head with his left fist. Jamie hunched his right shoulder and took most of the force of the blows on it. He kept up the pressure on O’Connor’s throat and heard the man start to make desperate little squeaking sounds as he struggled for air that couldn’t get through his windpipe.
O’Connor started to sag in Jamie’s grip. Jamie thought the sergeant was on the verge of passing out, but it was just a ploy. The next second, O’Connor’s right foot shot between Jamie’s legs, hooked behind his right ankle, and jerked hard. O’Connor threw himself forward at the same time. His chest rammed into Jamie’s, and that, combined with Jamie’s leg being pulled out from under him, was enough to knock Jamie over backward.
Jamie landed with O’Connor on top of him. That knocked the breath out of him and made red streaks shoot through the darkness all around them, at least in Jamie’s mind. O’Connor yanked loose the hand holding the saber and raised the blade high.
“Now I’ll skewer ye,” he growled.
Jamie didn’t have his full faculties back yet, but instincts honed during a lot of years of surviving a dangerous life pulled his head to the side just in time. The blade came down, whispering past his ear, and buried half a foot of itself in the sod. Before O’Connor could pull it free, Jamie clubbed both hands together and swung them in a sledgehammer blow to the side of O’Connor’s head. The terrific impact knocked O’Connor off him. O’Conner lost his grip on the saber and rolled on the grass.
Jamie snatched the saber from the sod and went after O’Connor. He dug a knee into O’Connor’s midsection, pinning him to the ground. As O’Connor gasped, Jamie put the saber’s edge against his throat and pressed hard enough for the blade to cut slightly into the skin.
“It’s over, O’Connor,” Jamie said. “One way or another. Stop fighting or I’ll slice your throat wide open.”
Instead of O’Connor answering, it was a higher-pitched voice that responded to Jamie’s words.
“If that man does not surrender immediately, shoot him!”
Jamie heard rifles being cocked all around him. It was a sound that would get a man’s attention.
He lifted his head and looked around. United States Army dragoons, in various states of undress but all holding rifles, surrounded him and pointed the weapons at him. A few feet away stood Lieutenant Edgar Davidson, in his uniform now and fairly quivering with indignation.
“You might want to reconsider that order, Lieutenant,” drawled Jamie. “Standing the way those boys are, if they open fire on me, some of them are liable to shoot each other. And O’Connor will wind up as full of lead as I am, I can guarantee that.” He paused, then added, “Of course, he won’t feel it for long, because I figure on cutting his throat before I die.”
For a long, tense moment, Davidson didn’t say anything. Then he told the troopers, “Step back and spread out, all of you, but keep MacCallister covered. And if he harms Sergeant O’Connor, you may fire at will.”
Jamie took the saber away from O’Connor’s throat. Under the circumstances, there was nothing else he could do. He pushed himself to his feet and stepped back.
“Surrender that saber,” Davidson ordered.
Instead of dropping the saber as his feet, Jamie shifted his grip, drew it back, and flung it like a spear. The blade drove into the ground just in front of Davidson, making him flinch slightly. The saber swayed back and forth a little from the force of Jamie’s throw.
“Take this man into custody,” Davidson went on. “You’ve defied the will of the United States Army long enough, MacCallister. You have to learn that you can’t attack my men and get away with it.”
O’Connor clambered to his feet and held a couple of fingers to his throat where the saber had nicked him. He frowned at the dark blood visible on his fingertips and then said, “You should go ahead and have him shot, Lieutenant! A court-martial would just be a waste of time. Put the bastard in front of a firing squad now!”
Davidson clasped his hands behind his back and lifted his chin.
“I understand that you’re upset, Sergeant, and with good reason,” he said. “But we will follow the proper protocol. In the meantime . . .” The lieutenant’s voice hardened. “I believe I gave an order. MacCallister is to be taken into custody immediately. I want this man in irons so he can’t cause any more trouble.”
With some reluctance, several of the troopers moved closer to Jamie. One of them was Corporal Mackey. He said, “I’m sorry about this, Mr. MacCallister, but I guess it’ll be easier all around if you just cooperate with what the lieutenant wants.”
Jamie said harshly, “Why don’t you ask the lieutenant about how he ordered O’Connor to kidnap a woman from that Crow village?”
“That’s a damned lie!” O’Connor exclaimed. “Lieutenant Davidson didn’t do any such thing.”
With his chin still jutting out defiantly, Davidson said, “Not that I have any need to answer to the likes of you, MacCallister, but I merely sent Sergeant O’Connor and a few of the men to reconnoiter the surrounding area and make certain that the savages weren’t trying to sneak up on us for some sort of surprise attack. I’m aware of how craven and cowardly they are.”
Rage burned brightly inside Jamie, but he realized he had no way of proving that Davidson was lying. The only ones who knew the truth about the attempt to kidnap Butterfly were back in the Crow village . . . and the soldiers might not believe them, anyway.
Surrounded by nervous, inexperienced, rifle-toting dragoons as he was, Jamie didn’t see any options other than cooperating, as Corporal Mackey had asked him to do. He was about to let the troopers take him back to the camp, when Davidson said to O’Connor, “Where are the rest of the men from your detail, Sergeant?”
“Dead, sir,” O’Connor answered without hesitation. “Murdered by the heathens. They attacked us, just like you thought they might.”
Davidson drew in a sharp, deep breath, and said, “My God! That’s the last straw. Tell the bugler to blow assembly! We’re going to attack that village and wipe it off the face of the earth! Those savages will pay for their crimes!”
Horror filled Jamie. With the failure of O’Connor and the others to steal Butterfly away, Davidson’s ambition had been thwarted again, and the resulting fury seemed to have tipped him over into madness.
“Lieutenant, you can’t do that,” Jamie said. “You’ve got no cause. You’re talking about a massacre—”
“I’m talking about avenging the deaths of American soldiers! Don’t you think that’s a worthy cause, MacCallister?”
“But they were trying to kidnap an innocent woman—”
“There are no innocent Indians!” Davidson practically screamed at him. “They’re all guilty! Men, women, and children! And we’re going to kill them all.” Davidson’s head jerked from side to side as he looked around at the troopers. “Carry out my orders! Now! And if MacCallister causes any trouble, shoot to kill!”
Jamie was going to cause trouble, all right. He was through trying to find peaceful solutions. With Davidson in command of the troop, that just wasn’t possible. And he sure as hell wasn’t going to stand by and do nothing while the dragoons attacked the Crow village. Even though the warriors were better fighting men, the soldiers outnumbered them and were better armed. In all likelihood, such a battle would wind up being a slaughter on both sides.
Jamie turned suddenly. He grabbed a rifle barrel and thrust hard on it so the stock slammed into the midsection of the trooper holding the gun. He gasped, doubled over, and let go of the rifle. Jamie whirled, still holding the barrel. He slammed the rifle across the chests of two more men and knocked them down.
Then he darted through the gap he had created in the circle of soldiers around him. Behind him, Davidson screeched, “Shoot him! Shoot him!”
Most of the troopers hesitated when it came to pulling the trigger, though. A couple of rifles boomed, but that was all. As Jamie raced away, he heard O’Connor yell, “Give me that rifle, damn it!”
A second later, another shot roared out, but Jamie had already put some distance between himself and the startled troopers. He heard the rifle ball hum past his head. Too close for comfort, he thought . . . but not close enough to stop him.
He whistled shrilly, knowing that his stallion would have stopped somewhere close by. Tyler’s horse, the one O’Connor had grabbed, must have galloped on into the camp, alerting the soldiers that something was going on. That was why they had been able to surround him and O’Connor while they were fighting.
Shouts made him glance back over his shoulder. The troopers were giving chase, streaming over the prairie in a dark, irregular mass in the moonlight. Orange muzzle flashes began to wink. Some of the men were trying to follow Davidson’s order to kill him.
Hoofbeats suddenly pounded close by. The stallion’s dark shape loomed up abruptly. The horse reared up, pawed at the air, and let out a whinny of greeting. As the front hooves came down to the earth again, Jamie vaulted into the saddle.
“I knew you wouldn’t let me down, old son,” he said as he grabbed the reins and wheeled the horse toward the river and the Crow village. “Let’s go!”
Once again, the stallion flashed over the plains as Jamie leaned forward in the saddle. Preacher, Hawk, Broken Pine, and the others must have heard the shots back there, but they wouldn’t know what the gunfire meant.
They didn’t know they were about to come under attack from troops commanded by a madman determined to see all of them dead.