Camp Camel: The Heart of Texas Page 2

  Itsee met Paaka in the yard. He told Paaka the man who they tracked had talked to him. They had a deep well in the yard where you could pull up water. Paaka looked back at the stall he found her in and told his brother Ghost had no water and was chained like a dog with her food out of reach. Itsee asked, “She can’t get to the trough?”

  Paaka replied, “No, not even most her bowls. I pushed mine toward her. I think she smelled me but I didn’t look in her eyes and turned and ran.”

  Itsee said, “He wants a rattle snake. She could eat the meat.”

  Paaka replied, “He wants her dead. We milk it first or trick them with garden snake.” Paaka pulled out the little pen knife from his pocket, “Hide this in her moccasin so she can kill it.” The boys smiled at each other and Itsee walked over to the stall where she was chained but on her feet. Both kept their hats covering their face and she didn’t try to touch them as much as she wanted to she could not. She would put her shame on them. Itsee held out the water bucket and she drank her fill. Paaka placed the small pen knife in his shoe and then took it out and placed it within her reach. On the handle was carved the words ‘Gage’. The Ghost in the stall took the pen knife in her hands and placed it deep in her shoe where it wouldn’t come out or show. Then she drew a picture in the sand of a feather and marked out a picture of a Ghost. She had a name and they should leave.

  Itsee shook his head, “One that was my mother and was a Ghost, our father has put you aside and it is good you have a new name of Feather so we can smile on your face once more. We who were your sons will bring our brother back so our father’s anger is appeased. Red Cedar asks you to give us our brother when his time is here. Until then, we will make their life as unhappy as they have made yours and ours.”

  They could hear the breath go out of Sia as she saw the cuts on their hands. Light Feather as the white man named her knew what that was. They had put her aside as their mother just like Sparrow Hawk had put her aside as his wife. They had mourned the death of Nahuu, the knife that guarded Sparrow Hawk’s family. Sia felt her heart break into a thousand pieces. If the baby had been just a little further along, she would have taken that knife and sliced it right out of her belly and given it to her two oldest sons and been done with it. As it was she pushed the oatmeal back toward them hoping they would eat it. They looked hungry, but boys always looked hungry and usually were.

  Out of respect, Itsee took a finger and ate and Paaka took a finger and ate. Then they pushed to bowl back to her. Itsee said in his most commanding voice, “You eat. Him with no face needs you to eat. Don’t make me whip you Sia.”

  Light Feather dipped her finger into the cold oatmeal and ate one bite then pushed the bowl back and turned and lay down. Paaka moved the bowl away out of her reach as they had been instructed. They couldn’t afford to be caught doing something the Sergeant or Cook disapproved of yet. They would find a way to feed her and not let them know she ate.

  Camp Verde Texas

  Lacy looked at Dallas Texas Crockett Sanders in disbelief, “You’re going where? You’re serious. Who would do that on purpose?” Her eyes scanned down looking at their young infant daughter Brianna and over to her older brother JC who was about to get into the ashes of the fireplace in their small officer’s cottage at Camp Verde, Texas, the home of the Confederate Texas camel corps.

  Dallas sighed, “Lacy, I am a soldier. There is a war on after all. We need to do more than use the camels for the entertainment of the women and children in San Antonio. They can carry a significant load of cotton to Mexico quicker than a mule drawn train. We know that.”

  Lacy didn’t even look up, “But we need you here.”

  Dallas quickly grabbed his son who made for the fireplace ashes and lifted him up to his knee as he sat next to Lacy on their bed. Major Sanders bounced the boy in a game of horsey distracting him from his target. For what ever reason JC loved to make a mess. Be it cold ashes, mud, flour, or even a hot stick burned on one end, the boy painted his face like the warriors of the Comanche with what ever came to hand. Perhaps it was all the Indians moving through on their way to Indian Territory lately. JC was fascinated by their colorful faces.

  Little Brianna was busy sucking at her mother’s breast greedily enjoying the warm breast milk. Dallas could barely look on the site of his daughter nursing without wanting to join her. There were Lacy’s soft white breasts engorged with the pale milky white liquid. Brianna lips curled around her nipple contentedly enjoying her breakfast.

  Dallas swallowed as a reflex. Brianna had been cranky the night before leaving Lacy with two full breasts and he had volunteered to help relieve the pain and fullness by taking them softly in his mouth and yes, drinking that warm sweet milk. He blushed subconsciously as he remembered how good and how guilty he felt. He hadn’t drained her completely fearing Brianna would wake at any moment demanding her mother feed her, but he had definitely drank enough to soften the lobes and relieve the situation at Bryan’s insistence that she not give in and use a bottle yet. Captain Bryan Travers, the camp’s doctor and Lacy’s old school teacher from when she lived near Searcy, Arkansas insisted she use every means necessary to keep her milk flowing and drained so she wouldn’t stop producing milk. Brianna’s occasional colic created problems. She could go hours fussing, then suddenly it was over and the little girl had an appetite more like a Texas Ranger than a a little girl.

  Of course she was the daughter of a ranger and no coddled baby in frilly skirts either. If anything her mother Lacy, was practical and as the weather started to become warm allowed her to only be dressed in a loose fitting gown or even just a nappie covering her tush. Lacy spoke softly, “Why you? Couldn’t one of the drovers take the cotton?”

  Dallas answered, “There are guns coming back. We need to provide an escort in case.” Dallas didn’t want to mention why in case. He was pretty sure Lacy knew the answer to that. There was a band of Comanche that raided the trail that was known for attacking the trains coming back with supplies. They had little use for the cotton being sent South through Mexico to avoid the Union blockades, but rifles, powder, lead, and whiskey presented a mighty temptation worth the risk. By using the camels Dallas hoped they could take a different path. One the Indian tribes that roamed around the border might not expect.

  Lacy replied, “And what if you meet him?”

  Dallas gave out one of those man sounds, “What you don’t think I can shoot straight or are you afraid I’ll come back full of arrows and missing my scalp?”

  Lacy looked into his eyes, “I know you told me before you asked to come here Dallas. I just didn’t realize how dangerous it was. Union troops don’t scalp their prisoners like the Indians. The Cherokee I knew looked like us. Not like them.” Lacy had seen Indians before in Arkansas, but most were already removed by the time her family moved from Tennessee to Arkansas. After all, Indians had owned the lands they lived on at one time, but had signed them away in the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek. John Ross had deeded the very land her father owned now to the State of Arkansas. John Ross was more Scottish than Cherokee, but he lead the Cherokee Nation in Indian Territory. Now Stand Watie looked more like an Indian with darker skin. But the Comanche, Kiowa, and Apache, those were Indians and much more dangerous looking. Even though Lacy knew in her mind that Indians raided the stagecoaches, smaller ranches and travelers that went through their territory or lived close enough that there were disputes over resources or land, until she actually saw the bodies that the soldiers brought back of women and children, it really didn’t sink in what Dallas had told her. While they might not find themselves fighting General Curtis’ army, there were things that could kill you just as dead here.

  Dallas balanced JC with one hand while taking the other and turning Lacy’s face so that she looked straight in his eyes as he said, “The camels can out run them you know. They can find water too. I’m coming back.”

  All Lacy could think of was the family that left three days ago and the description she heard from
the soldiers that buried them along the trail northwest of San Antonio. Their scalps were missing, their clothes taken and bodies tortured. All but one child was accounted for. The young toddler no more than two or three was missing with a note left pinned to the father’s bloody shirt with an arrow clearly put there by Chief Sparrow Hawk, “My son or I take more. Her time is near.”

  Lacy asked Dallas, “What did he mean? Her time is near?” Lacy had heard rumors that there were more than camels in the camel pen. The women talked quietly in the camp about how it wasn’t safe. She should leave. It wasn’t fair that she was being kept here. Captain Tyler’s Mexican wife crossed herself when she crossed the yard between her home and Lacy’s saying a prayer to the Blessed Mother Mary in Spanish. Lacy had asked her whether she was afraid of the camels and she just shook her head. Her English was good so Lacy knew when she resorted to Spanish it was serious.

  Mrs. Tyler said, “His son grows in there. What if he comes for him?”

  Lacy had asked, “Whose?”

  Mrs. Tyler just shook her head, “You don’t say his name or you call his spirit Mrs. Sanders.” She left quickly refusing to say more.

  Dallas could see her deep in thought. Dallas pressed on her chin, “Now, Lacy. It’s just sometimes the only way to keep someone in line is to take a member of their family as hostage. It’s an old tradition. Not something I made up, alright? You don’t need to worry about it.”

  Lacy frowned, “Don’t need to worry? I guess I wasn’t worried until you said I don’t need to worry Dallas. Maybe I should be as worried as Mrs. Tyler or half the women in camp. Who or what are you keeping in the camel pen that has everyone acting like the devil himself is in there?”

  Dallas couldn’t help but grin at that, “Devil? They think that she’s the Devil?”

  Lacy really wasn’t smiling now, “She? You’re talking about a camel surely?”

  Dallas cringed a little, “Well, certainly there are camels in there and the drovers live there and one of Sparrow Hawk’s wives who’s carrying his child.” Dallas sat JC down and encouraged him to run for the soot. Any distraction would be welcome about now. He quickly got up, put on his hat, kissed his wife and baby girl and tasted the sweet milk on his daughter’s cheek and walked as quickly as his legs would take him toward the door.

  Lacy ignored JC’s dash for the ashes and rose following Dallas, “WIFE? You have that murdering savage’s wife in our camel pen? You’re leaving with most of the men to take cotton to Mexico. You’re not leaving us here with her in there are you Dallas?”

  Just then Doctor Bryan Travers knocked on the door with a large cup of what passed for his coffee in his hand, “Dallas? Are you ready? Daylight is wasting. You wanted to show me something before you left?”

  Dallas pushed Bryan back out of the door and into the yard and kept moving, “Don’t turn around Bryan. Don’t go back no matter what she says.”

  Lacy stood on the porch and yelled out, “Oh shit. You do have her. What the hell!” Lacy looked back as something crashed in their bedroom, “JC STOP THAT!” Lacy had no choice to be retreat into her home before her toddler managed to stick the cat with the fire poker. There was a screech from the cat as the iron made contact with the cat’s backside from within the cabin.

  Dallas chuckled, “Thank God. JC I owe you for that one.”

  Bryan looked puzzled, “You hate the cat now?”

  Dallas pulled Bryan past the door into the camel pen. It was over ten feet high with a smaller door that could be opened without having to open the larger entrance. The guard at the entrance saluted the Major and Captain, “Sirs. Good day to you!” Dallas and Bryan quickly returned the salute.

  Dallas looked at the Sergeant, “No one besides those assigned to the camels comes in here Sergeant. Under no circumstances let my wife follow us, you understand?”

  The Sergeant had heard Lacy before she retreated, “Yes Sir.” After Dallas dragged Bryan through the door, the Sergeant whistled out a few bars of the Yellow Rose of Texas as if nothing was a miss.

  Bryan was seriously frowning, “What one of the camels is in labor?”

  Dallas looked like wished it was that simple. Dallas pointed to one of sheds that housed the most important property the Confederate Army held on this base, the camels. Dallas said, “She’s in there. She’s refusing to eat. You’ve got to do something Bryan. If we lose her, half of this country will be under Chief Sparrow Hawk’s blade.”

  Bryan’s eyebrow raised, “You promised him a pregnant camel? or a baby camel?”

  Dallas frowned, “Shit, it’s worse. The camel isn’t let us get near her. She’s going to die. She doesn’t want to give up her baby. Daisy thinks the woman is hers.”

  Bryan chuckled, “You’re kidding me. The camels are talking to you now? Maybe I need to take another look at your head Dallas. You sure you’re alright? Maybe you should let someone else go this time. That was a close call you had. That crease on your skull seems to have rattled your brains. Maybe that arrow was tipped with peyote or something.”

  Bryan carefully peeked into the shed. There at the end was Daisy, a one hump camel down on her knees in the straw with one of the new young handlers trying to temp her into coming with him. Next to Daisy was a woman. She was very pregnant, wore her hair in braids, and dressed in buckskin. She was laying down in the straw not moving. It looked like it had been days since she ate and the food and water over to the side just out of reach of Daisy were untouched. Bryan let out a curse, “What the hell? Who is that Dallas?”

  Dallas said with as little emotion as he could, “Chief Sparrow Hawk’s second or third wife. Our guest, or I guess you might say hostage would describe the situation better.” Dallas rubbed the line through his hair that was still visible as he said, “Chief Sparrow Hawk has decided to take his own hostage to make sure he gets his son back.”

  Bryan looked around, “What son?”

  Dallas pointed to her belly, “Well, I hope it’s a son or there might be hell to pay Bryan. You see, she’s white but she was carrying his child when she was liberated from his camp.”

  Bryan swallowed, “Liberated. Stolen back?”

  Dallas said, “Afraid so. The good Friar told us where she would be that day. She can’t go north with them, but apparently Sparrow Hawk is pissed enough to start raiding the trails and sending personal messages attached to bodies. He wants her baby.” Dallas handed him the bloody note.

  Bryan cursed again, “Bloody hell. He killed them all but the young boy?” Bryan turned his gaze to the mound in the straw, “Why didn’t you bring her to me earlier?”

  Dallas pointed at Daisy, “Daisy seems to have her own ideas about what happens next. She doesn’t talk and until one of the boys said something, I didn’t realize what had happened. They said I shamed her and she can’t eat.”

  Bryan asked, “You did what?”

  Dallas said, “I took her around trying to find her family. No one claimed her. She doesn’t have anywhere to go. Seems our new Camel boys heard rumors about her down at the Mission from Sister Abigail.”

  Bryan asked, “The gossip. The one who trades with the Indians?”

  Dallas said, “Same one. Paul said her name was Nahuu or the Knife in Comanche, but I’m not calling her that. I told her my name for her was Light Feather so she will answer to that now.” Dallas looked around, “The less people that know who’s in here the better Bryan. Albert Pike wants her baby and intends to use it to get Sparrow Hawk relocated. She needs a white sponsor. That baby needs to be born healthy or there’s going to be an Indian War.”

  Bryan looked at the woman, “So, everyone is afraid to take her. Sort of puts a target on your family if he finds out where she’s been relocated don’t you think?”

  Dallas said, “I was kind of hoping you would sponsor her. At least until the child is born. That baby is the key to getting him to relocate to Indian Territory. Apparently all his children by his first wife has died or been still born. This one has given him all sons. Hi
s first wife is jealous, but a son is a son and he’s going to get the one she’s carrying or kill his hostage.”

  Bryan looked at Dallas, “You got all of that from her?”

  Dallas said, “Mostly the camel boys, but yes I spent time with her. She can make signs. Not always nice ones, but when she wants she can get a message across well enough. I named her Light Feather because of her hands. They feel as light as a feather on your skin. She must have been trained to, ah, well to pleasure men.”

  Bryan eyed Dallas, “You cheated on Lacy.”

  Dallas replied, “I did my sworn duty to interrogate her. She road with me and well, her hands wondered that’s all. I didn’t Bryan, but that’s another reason why I need you to sponsor her. The boys have it in their mind that I should take her as a second wife. Actually, they think I did.”

  The squaw stirred and looked up where the voices were coming from. Her hazel eyes looked at Dallas, then stared at the new comer. Her face looked familiar, but Bryan was trying to place it. Then he looked strait into Dallas’ eyes, “My God, how?”

  Dallas looked back at Bryan, “That is a very good question. Unfortunately, I don’t think Gage is going to tell us now. Sure does look like him though, don’t you think?”

  Bryan asked, “Couldn’t you take her out to the Travis ranch? Surely if she’s theirs they’d take her in?”

  Dallas’ thoughts went back to when he had tried to ask Gage’s father if by any chance she could be his child. The old man looked at Dallas and said, “My daughter’s dead. She disappeared years ago. That’s not her. Now leave.” The old man stood there staring at her, his face as white as a ghost looking down at her protruding belly. He added looking straight at Light Feather, “No daughter of mine would let that red savage touch her. She’s dead to me I’m telling you.”