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Chapter Eighteen
As Chase stirred from the dream he did not want to leave, he realized the Captain was watching him as he slowly opened his eyes to reality once more. The dream was gone.
"You didn't catch a little sleep, Captain?" Chase asked, his voice returning to normal now.
"Not much," the Captain added watching him still. "Still determined to pull the Corporal?"
"Yes, I will pull him." Chase answered. "I just needed some rest. We will go on."
"Why? I mean, why does a man like you care, one way or another about the Corporal?" The Captain asked.
"A man like me, Captain? A breed, you mean? Do you think my blood is a different color from your own? Do you think my heartbeat is less steady, or my mind less functional? I am but a man, Captain. The white man takes a long time to learn this. I would not leave a man out here in the elements, Captain. That would be murder. He wouldn't survive long. He's a human being. He's alive. He ain't dead. He has to go with us." Chase answered simply. "Sometimes a man does what he has to do, because he has to. Because he knows he has to."
"I can't quite figure you out, yet." The Captain eyed him a slight smile creasing his face. "Where were you educated, sir?"
"At a mission, here in Texas."
"You speak English well, and yet you grew up with the Comanche, according to the papers I've seen on you."
"That is true Captain. My mother was white, Captain, and she saw to my education. She lives among the Shawnee, they are her family," Chase said. Why he bothered to explain anything he wasn't sure, only that more needed to know the truth. "They took her when she was married but a year to a white man. Once, and only once, a French trapper rescued her, but by then, she had me." He watched the Captain's face change with the new knowledge. "She knew her white husband would never accept her again with a part Indian child. So she stayed with the Indians. And they treated her well, like family. That is how the Shawnee are. Even though they have taken many, they do not mistreat the captives as some do."
"You're saying there is a difference in the tribes and how they live?" The Captain twisted his head as though he'd never considered one Indian from another. "How they treat others?"
"This is true, Captain. Just as many white men are not the same. It is so with the Indians. If the Comanche had captured her, either she would fit in, or they would kill her or trade her to another tribe. Comanche have no sense of family, Captain. At least not where a white is concerned. You are a member of their tribe, you do what is expected, or you don't live long. That is their way. Our way, is better, and always has been. That is why the Shawnee could be friends with the bluec
oats during your revolution."
"Shawnee have raided Tennessee and Kentucky for years. They've been more feared than the Comanche in the Ohio Valley."
"That is because the white man refuses to live with them. They drove them out of the valley. My people had no choice but to fight for what was theirs. The Indians worked this land long before the long knives came. And other tribes too. Pushing them off their lands. The Shawnee tried many times to make treaties, only for them to be broken. The white man's treaties are twisted."
"Perhaps." Then the Captain twisted his head and looked at him again. "Our treaties have not always been good, or fair…"
"I lived with both tribes Captain, but I am also part white too. At times my white side wars with the Indian side, as the two do not agree about everything. I have the war inside me; you have the war in front of you. It is the same war, Captain."
"Interesting, I never thought about that." The Captain mused. "You intrigue me, give me food for thought."
Chase took his boots off and shook the sand out of them, then slipped them back on. "It's a long walk, think on it, Captain. Maybe by the time we get to the fort, you will have figured me out."
Chase was about to check on Lee when he reached for his knife. The Captain saw him and reached for his gun. About to pull the trigger, the knife landed next to the Captain with the head of a copperhead staring up at him.
"What…." The Captain jerked about and saw that Chase had killed a snake almost wrapping around his neck, next to him. The rest of the snake slid over his shoulder, and the Captain threw it for several yards. His face screwed up into a frown as he tossed it.
He lowered the gun. "I'm sorry…"
Chase smiled, his gaze going over the Captain with renewed interest. "No harm done. And snake makes a tasty treat."
"To eat?" the Captain sneered, his frown deepening.
"Yep, to eat." Chase chuckled.
Taking the snake he proceeded to cut him up, and he made a small fire against the rocks to cook it.
"This won't take too long, then we'll feel better and we can make it to the station by tomorrow. We'll push on through the day so we can get there. Although, we will need a plan, to outfox Hawks. He isn't the smartest, but he's clever. Captain, whether you believe all I've said, you have to understand that Hawks is a dangerous man and he'd as soon kill us as look at us. Although he is only one man, he is dangerous, as Katherine said. I've come to respect how dangerous since I counted the bodies at the shack. So if you have any ideas on how to capture him, I'd appreciate you sharing them."
"What do you think he'll do, once he finds out we are alive?" The Captain speculated.
"He'll try to kill us. We know he killed those boys. He'll have to kill us, if he wants to survive."
