Free Far as the Eye Can See by Robert Bausch Page B

out a little to my left and held my carbine on them. I had all thirty-four rounds loaded in the thing and I was ready, too, I guess. Them two fellows we first seen looked like some kind of Indian but I couldn’t tell which ones. Without the army near, Theo took no chances. He had his own gun. He stood by the front wheel of his wagon. The horses in Theo’s team stomped some and made a bit of noise. It was like a low growl that come from deep inside each animal.
    Theo signed a “Hello” to the three men, which was always just a hand raised high above the shoulder. The big black-haired fellow moved forward between the other two. “Hello,” he said. It was friendly enough. “Maybe you should tell us where you are going.”
    “Fort Sedgwick,” Theo said.
    “Well, I will tell you.” He leaned forward a little in the saddle, his elbows on the saddle horn. “You ain’t far from it.”
    “No sir,” Theo said. “I expect we’ll be there before dark.”
    “How many are you?” He looked around a little, like he was expecting company.
    “You army?” Theo said.
    “Fifth Cavalry. I am Major Eugene Carr. At your service.”
    The two fellows behind him now made no sign. They was both sweating in the July heat. Each carried a long-barreled Enfield rifle. If they wasn’t Indians, they was former Confederate.
    “We had a escort until the day before yesterday,” Theo said.
    “How many are you?” the major asked again.
    “We’re enough. Twenty-three wagons.”
    “Well, there are some renegade Injuns around here.”
    “Dog soldiers,” one of the other fellows said. “Tall Bull and many others.”
    “Sioux?” Theo said.
    “Cheyenne,” Major Carr said. “A big raiding party.” The two other men got down off their horses and walked toward us.
    “We’ll camp at Fort Sedgwick,” Theo said. Then he moved away from his wagon and approached the two men, who had stopped walking toward him. Both of them was small in stature, with brown faces and dirty black hair. When Theo got close enough, one of them said, “We would like some water.” Theo must have sensed something, because he reached out and grabbed the weapon out of the fellow’s hand and pointed it at both of them. “We got plenty of water,” he said. The second one give some thought to running but then he put his gun down on the ground. I got down off of Cricket and picked up his weapon, then backed away a bit, still pointing my carbine.
    Major Carr looked mighty surprised. “They are scouts, sir,” he said. “They are with me.”
    “You don’t look like any major in the army I ever seen,” Theo said. “Get down off that horse.”
    He sat there staring at Theo. “You are making a big mistake,” he said. Then he turned his horse and galloped off. Theo aimed his rifle at him but never fired.
    Big Tree said, “I go after him?”
    “We got these two,” Theo said. “Stick around.”
    “What do we do now?” I said.
    “These here are Pawnee,” Theo said. “The worst of the worst. And I’m thinking that ’ere major is a renegade.”
    “We are not Pawnee,” one of the little fellows said. “My name is Mitch Boyer. This here is Tom.”
    “You’d be white men,” Theo said.
    “That’s right. We ride with the major.”
    “You don’t look like white men. Why you dressed like that?”
    “We scout for the major. We are not enlisted.”
    Theo looked at me. “They’re Pawnee. Tie them to the wagon.”
    He held the gun on them and I got some rope and with the help of Big Tree tied one to the front wheel and the other to the back wheel. First we tied their arms. Then we pulled their legs apart and tied them so each man was spread-eagled across the wheel, feet and arms sticking out beyond the rim. With their knees on the ground and their lower legs bent back under the wheel, and their arms tied at the elbow, they commenced to breathing really hard. I could see the breastbone on each of them, protruding in the sunlight. When we was done, Theo