Free Far as the Eye Can See by Robert Bausch

good medicine.”
    “Well, whoever they was, they was murderers.”
    “I expect they thought it was justice. Seeing as how Preston run off with that horse.”
    “But if he was ordered to give it up, that ain’t really stealing, is it? He disobeyed a order, is all.”
    Theo puffed on his pipe and stared off at the white clouds. “It don’t matter what you call it, now, does it? Preston’s paid for it, whatever it was.” It was early morning, but the sky was magnificent with all that mixture of clouds like white cliffs and mountains and the dark blue behind them. “I traded Twines His Horse’s Tail a pistol and a mule for that old wagon and I’ll let you have it if you trade me that repeater of yours.”
    “I’d rather have the rifle, thank you.”
    He tried to talk me into it. Finally I agreed that he could have it if something happened to me. I signed a piece of paper that said as much and he give it to his wife, then told me the wagon was mine. The next day I bought two horses from the army—used my last ten dollars—and hitched them to the wagon. I tied Cricket to the back of it.
    We was getting ready to embark again. Some of the river Crows was going to ride along with us for a spell. They known we was headed into Sioux country and the Crow wanted to steal horses from the Sioux—their worst enemy. In fact, Theo told me that the word “Sioux” means “Enemy.” The Sioux call themselves Lakota or Dakota. There’s a lot of them—a lot more than the Crow—and they roam all around this part of the country, making war on just about everybody they please. Red Top was a Wahpekute Dakota, and all the trouble in Minnesota Territory, Iowa, and the plains was blamed on him. Theo said, “He ain’t never had more than twenty or thirty braves with him, but he can fight like Sheridan or Forrest, and it would take a Sheridan or Forrest to run him down.”
    “I hope we don’t run into him.”
    “The army will ride with us for a spell—until we get to Fort Wallace. Then we’re going to turn north a bit, cross the Republican River, and head for Fort Sedgwick.”
    “Where we going after that?”
    “Bozeman, Montana Territory—Fort Ellis.”
    “Think we’ll make Bozeman before winter?”
    “Absolutely. We’ll be there by August, the latest.”
    “With or without trouble?”
    “Oh,” Theo said. “There’s always some kind of trouble.”

Chapter 4
    We traveled a long way with the army right next to us, or never further than a couple miles away. The country was teeming with game. We killed deer, elk, rabbit, buffalo, and every kind of fowl. Big Tree killed a cougar, skinned it, and ate it, and nobody wanted no part of that meat. He offered it too. I was beginning to see that he wasn’t a parsimonious fellow.
    We seen things I didn’t think was possible. One day a great big bald eagle swooped down and picked up a small dog. It carried the thing high up to its nest on the top of a slim, craggy rock formation which was flat on the top. Theo said that normally a eagle would fly up way in the sky and drop small prey like that to kill it, then they’d sweep down, pick it up, and carry it to the nest to eat. But this eagle took it all the way up to the top of that rock, and never dropped it. The great bird set the dog down in the nest and the damn pup stood there and wagged its tail, looking down at us, and eventually it commenced whimpering to beat all. We stopped the train to watch it. The eagle flew around over its head like some kind of winged death. And the dog started howling finally. We had no time to wait long enough to see what happened to it, but I couldn’t help but think that maybe we’re all a little bit like that dog. We occupy our little space of earth and wait for the damn bird to strike.
    We seen a tornado drop down out of the sky like a twisting snake and rake the whole world for as far as we could see. It moved away from us, but the rain it sent back our way was sharp as coffin nails, and