Free The Peacemaker by Chelley Kitzmiller Page A

knew exactly how he felt.
    "The idea I just expressed, sir, is not mine alone, but Sergeant Moseley's and some of the other men—veteran Indian fighters." He started to get up. "The mail goes out day after tomorrow." He took back the petition, folded it neatly, and stuck it in his pocket. "The men hope you'll consider what they've asked me to say, sir."
    "Blackmail, Captain? Or mutiny?"
    "You asked me what you could do to stop the petition from being sent. I've told you, sir. If you choose to think it's mutiny or blackmail, that's up to you."
    "And if I agree to employing a scout, who would I get?"
    "There's only one man for the job. Shatto."
    Indy snapped her pencil in half and looked up.
    The colonel gave an ironic chuckle. "Shatto again."
    "Yes, sir. Shatto again. His coming here today only proved what we all suspected anyway—that some of the Apaches want peace and are willing to fight other Apaches to get it. Shatto has the skills we need, sir. He's cunning as a fox and as deadly with a knife as any longshoreman. And there isn't an animal or human he can't track."
    Indy turned her eyes on her father and awaited his reaction with a pounding heart.
    She didn't have to wait long. He stood up and pushed his chair back, the legs screeching as they scraped the floor. "Shatto." He ran his fingers through his hair and walked away from the table. "I don't like it, Captain. I don't like it at all. What kind of man would train others to fight and kill his own?"
    "Begging your pardon, Colonel, but you don't understand the Apache structure. The tribe is broken up into divisions, bands, and family groups—each of them having their own leader or chief who makes the laws for his people. Their loyalty doesn't reach to the other units. In that way, they're no different than we are."
    "How's that, Captain?"
    "The Yanks and the Rebs, sir. People of one race fighting against each other."
    "I'll give the matter some consideration."
    "Yes, sir. I'll tell the men."

Chapter 5
     
     
    Shatto. All of Bowie was talking about him—the soldiers, the women, even the half-dozen children. They recounted every story they knew—the time Shatto had given the puppy to the Clarke boy, the rescue of the mail detachment, his bringing Chie's braves to the colonel for punishment and others.
    They wondered. They speculated. They placed bets on the colonel and on Shatto.
    Indy was just as eager to learn of her father's decision as everyone else, though she couldn't see he had any choice but to agree, what with the threat of the petition being sent to the War Department. How utterly humiliating. A petition! Signed by nearly every soldier at Bowie! She had expected him to rant and rave, but he had said nothing and went about his business acting as if nothing had happened.
    Midmorning she packed up the stew pot, pie dish and gingham bread cloth and paid a call on Ava Burroughs. She was delighted to find Aphra and Opal there too. The three officers' wives sat in a triangle, a large patchwork quilt spread between them. All the while they talked they never missed a stitch, except once, when Indy mentioned Prudence.
    "I've always felt sort of sorry for Prudence," said Ava, "to go from the social position of a major's wife on Officers' Row to a widow working as an Army laundress--it's such hard work for so little pay."
    Indy was incredulous. Her face drained of color.
    Ava, looking up from the quilt and seeing Indy's surprise, apologized profusely. "I'm sorry, Indy. I thought she would have told you."
    Indy shook her head. "No, she hasn't said anything about being married."
    "Well, it wasn't much of a marriage," Ava returned, bending her head back to the quilt. "Major Stallard was nearly twenty years older than Prudence. He found her working in a Nogales saloon and offered to marry her if she'd make a decent home for him."
    "Some bargain," Opal said sarcastically. "All she did was drive him crazy with her wanton ways. And then—the poor man—hardly married a year