Page 11 of Finding Her


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"The Indians attached our military wagon train, and the Lieutenant said it was a Sioux war party. About twenty of them. I was reloading Franks' rifle and not watching the wagon. When I went to check on her, she was gone, and so were the Indians."

"So, you didn't actually see them take her?" Aiden frowned again.

"Well, no, of course not, but who else could have?" she asked.

"I don't know ma'am. Are you sure they were Sioux?"

"That's what the soldiers said."

Aiden nodded, "Well, we'll see what we can do."

"She will be alright, won't she?"

"Yes ma'am. They don't normally kill children. And if they had wanted that, they'd have done it there at the wagon. In a mourning war, they take another child, a white child as their own to replace the child of theirs that died. They figure it's only fair. A life for a life, an eye for an eye."

"Well, that's good to know. But to be raised like an Indian, isn't that as bad as killing her?"

Aiden considered that question. He thought of Lucy and a frown marred his otherwise pleasant features. "Get some sleep now. We have a long day tomorrow." Aiden told her, he wasn't going to try to tell her that they would treat her as their own. She wouldn't understand that, it was obvious she thought them savages, like most white people.

She nodded. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

The next morning, he had some coffee to wake him up and ate some fat back and biscuit one of the barmaids made for him at the fort. He had enough so he shared them with the Winters.

The first snow had fallen but it was light and barely froze the ground. He was glad he got a head start on winter. The second night went well, he managed to catch a rabbit for supper although it was a meager meal splitting it three ways.

The third night he ran into an unfriendly black bear and killed him. It was hibernating time and they didn't like being surprised. Mrs. Winters screamed as though the bear meant to attack her and Aiden's reflexes had him downing the bear in one shot. Had she not screamed the bear might have gone on, and not bothered them. He dressed him out and cooked a big roast that they could eat on for days as they traveled. He kept the hide to warm himself with when it got really cold. He couldn't dress it out like he wanted tan it, but he could always use it as a blanket under him.

As he climbed high though the temperature started changing, it was much colder and the next night he nearly froze when it snowed again, this time harder and longer. He used the bear skin to stay warm and kept traveling for the next few days. He kept them at a steady pace, but the odd part was, they hadn't seen a soul up here.

Naturally the dead of winter most people had enough sense not to be traveling these hills. All but the Indians, this was their home, and they knew it well.

That changed the next day. Running into a couple of bushwhackers he had to shoot one in the leg when they tried to steal his pack horse. The other man gave up and Aiden sent them on their way after he helped build a travois for him to haul his friend with.

"Don't let me catch you around here anymore or I'll kill you next time." Aiden warned them.

"Sorry mister, it was hard travelin' two on a horse though in this kind of snow."

"Next time carry you some pack animals so you can change them out," Aiden advised the man.

"Yeah, we'll do that. But we kind of figured we could take one of your pack horses. All we needed was one. We wasn't trying to be unfriendly."

Aiden came right up to the man, almost nose to nose. "I got business on this mountain, and I'll be needing theses horses. In this weather a friend doesn't take supplies, especially without asking. Now get on down the mountain or I'll turn you into the commander at the fort."

"That's Major Mash and Colonel Gibbons with the 7th Infantry, ain't no way we want to go there, mister. That place is like Hangmen's Knot. Ever since Custer moved out this way, all they want is to kill Indians and any whites that get in the way of it."

Aiden couldn't stop the smile.

"Your probably right about that."

"Yeah, Custer's been stirring up trouble all along. A bunch of them high-falootin' officers have been raising Cain with the Indians, they ain't too friendly right now. That Custer doesn't put up with much from anyone. Don't nobody like goin' to his fort."

"Yeah, well then, don't be stealing horses and you won't have to."

"We aren't thieves, just trying to make it down the mountain. We had pack horses, but the first night out, a Cougar scared them off."

"Well, I’m sorry about that. Did you kill the Cougar?"

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