Part 48 (1/2)

If there was hope for her, Lorena knew it lay with Dog Face. He was rough and crazy, but he wasn't hard like the old man. He might cuff her if she disappointed him, but he didn't beat her with hot sticks or kick her stomach like the old man did. At times she caught Dog Face looking at her in a friendly way. He was getting so he didn't like Monkey John to hurt her or even touch her. He was cautious about what he said, for the old man would flare up in an instant, but when Monkey John bothered her, Dog Face got restless and would often take his gun and leave the camp. Monkey John didn't care-he played with her roughly whether anyone was in camp or not.

One night Blue Duck rode in from one of his mysterious trips with some whiskey, which he dispensed freely both to the two white men and to the Kiowas. Blue Duck drank with them, but not much, whereas in an hour Monkey John, Dog Face and the Kiowas were very drunk. It was a hot night but they built a big campfire and sat around it, pa.s.sing the bottle from hand to hand.

Lorena began to feel frightened. Blue Duck had not so much as looked at her, but she felt something was about to happen. He had several bottles of whiskey, and as soon as the men finished one he handed them another. Monkey John was particularly sloppy when he drank. The whiskey ran out of the corners of his mouth and into his dirty beard. Once he stood up and made water without even turning his back.

”You could go off aways,” Dog Face said. ”I don't want to sit in your p.i.s.s.”

The old man continued to make water, most of it hitting the campfire and making a spitting sound, but some splattering on the ground near where Dog Face sat.

”I could but I ain't about to,” the old man said. ”Scoot back if you're afraid of a little p.i.s.s.”

Blue Duck spread a blanket near the fire and began to roll dice on it. The Kiowas immediately got excited. Ermoke grabbed the dice and rolled them several times. Each of the Kiowas had a try, but Monkey John scoffed at their efforts.

”Them gut eaters can't throw dice,” he said.

”You better be quiet,” Blue Duck said. ”Ermoke wouldn't mind frying your liver.”

”He tries it and I'll blow a hole in him you could catch rain water through,” Monkey John said.

”Let's gamble,” Blue Duck said. ”I ain't had a game in a while.”

”Gamble for what?” Dog Face asked. ”All I got is my gun and I'd be in pretty shape without that. Or my horses.”

”Put up your horses then,” Blue Duck said. ”You might win.”

Dog Face shook his head.

”I don't know much,” Dog Face said. ”But I know better than to bet my dern horses. There ain't nowhere to walk to from this Canadian that a man can get to on foot.”

Yet an hour later he lost his horses to Blue Duck. Monkey John lost his on the first roll. Before long Blue Duck had won all the horses, though many of the Indians were so drunk they hardly seemed to know what was happening.

Blue Duck had a heavy, square face-he kept shaking the dice in his big hand. Sometimes he would play with a strand of his s.h.a.ggy hair, as a girl would. Sometimes Lorena thought maybe she could grab a gun and shoot him-the men left their rifles laying around. But the gun hadn't worked when she tried to shoot Tinkersley, and if she tried to shoot Blue Duck and didn't kill him she would be in for it. She might be in for it anyway, though it seemed to her the men were scared of him too. Even Monkey John was cautious when Blue Duck was around. They might be glad to see him dead. She didn't try it. It was because she was so frightened of him that she wanted to, yet the same fright kept her from it.

”Well, now I've won the livestock,” Blue Duck said. ”Or most of it.”

”Most of it, h.e.l.l, you've won it all,” Monkey John said. ”We're stuck on this G.o.dd.a.m.n river.”

”I ain't won the girl,” Blue Duck said.

”A woman ain't livestock,” Dog Face said.

”This one is,” Blue Duck said. ”I've bought and sold better animals than her many times.”

”Well, she's ours,” Monkey John said.

”She's just half yours,” Blue Duck reminded him. ”Ermoke and his boys own a half interest.”

”We was aiming to buy them out,” Dog Face said.

Blue Duck laughed his heavy laugh. ”By the time you raise the money, there won't be much left to buy,” he said. ”You'd do better to buy a goat.” .

”Don't want no G.o.dd.a.m.n goat,” Dog Face said. He was nervous about the turn the conversation was taking.

”Let's gamble some more,” Blue Duck said, shaking the dice at Ermoke. ”Bet me your half interest in the woman. If you win I'll let you have your horses back.”

Ermoke shook his head, looking at Lorena briefly across the campfire.

”No,” he said. ”We want the woman.”

”Come on, let's gamble,” Blue Duck said, a threatening tone in his voice. All the Kiowas looked at him. The two white men kept quiet.

The Kiowas began to argue among themselves. Lorena didn't understand their gabble, but it was clear some wanted to gamble and some didn't. Some wanted their horses back. Ermoke finally changed his mind, though he kept looking across the fire at her. It was as if he wanted her to know he had his plans for her, however the game turned out.

All the Kiowas finally agreed to gamble except one, the youngest. He didn't want it. He was skinny and very young-looking, no more than sixteen, but he was more interested in her than the rest. Sometimes, in the Kiowa camp, he had two turns, or even three. The older men laughed at his appet.i.te and tried to distract him when he covered her, but he ignored them.

Now he balked. He didn't look up, just kept his eyes down and shook his head. The Kiowas yelled at him but he didn't respond. He just kept shaking his head. He didn't want to risk his interest in her.

”That d.a.m.n chigger's holding up the game,” Blue Duck said to Ermoke. He stood up and walked a few steps into the darkness. In a minute, they heard him making water. The Kiowas were still drinking whiskey. Now Ermoke was in the mood to gamble, and he reached over and shook the young man, trying to get him to agree, but the young man looked sullenly at the ground.

Suddenly there was a shot, startling them all, and the young man flopped backwards. Blue Duck stepped back into the firelight, a rifle in his hands. The Indians were speechless. Blue Duck sat down, the rifle across his lap, and rattled the dice again. The young Indian's feet were still in the light, but the feet didn't move.

”By G.o.d, life's cheap up here on the G.o.dd.a.m.n Canadian,” Monkey John said.

”Cheap, and it might get cheaper,” Blue Duck said.

Then the gambling started again. The dead boy was ignored. In a few minutes Blue Duck had won her back-not only what the Indians owned but what the white men owned too. Dog Face didn't want to play, but he also didn't want to die. He played and lost, and so did Monkey John.

”I think you're a G.o.dd.a.m.n cheat,” Monkey John said, drunk enough to be reckless. ”I think you cheated me out of our horses, and now you've cheated us out of this woman.”

”I don't want the woman,” Blue Duck said. ”You men can have her back as a gift, and your horses too, provided you do me one favor.”

”I bet it's a h.e.l.l of a big favor,” Dog Face said. ”What do you want us to do, attack a fort?”

Blue Duck chuckled. ”There's an old man following me,” he said. ”He went west, but he'll be coming along one of these days. I want you to kill him.

”Hear that, Ermoke?” he added. ”You can have your horses back, and the woman too. Just kill that old man. I hear he's coming down the river.”

”I'd like to know who you hear it from?” Monkey John asked.

”He's been following me ever since I stole the woman,” Blue Duck said. ”He ain't no tracker, though. He went off across the Quitaque. But now he's figured it out and he'll be coming.”

”By G.o.d, he must want her bad, to come all this way,” Monkey John said.

”Kill him tomorrow,” Blue Duck said, looking at Ermoke. ”Take some of the horses and go find some help.”

Ermoke was drunk and angry. ”We do it,” he said. ”Then we take the woman.”