Part 62 (1/2)

”Joe!”

There was cold fear in Emma's voice, and when Joe moved to the front of the house he saw the women looking out. Across the creek and up on the opposite slope, sixteen Indians stood in the meadow. There was something insultingly contemptuous about them as they either leaned on their long rifles or held them in their hands. They were dressed in buckskin save for one who wore a black suit that probably had been plundered from some settler. Of the rest, some wore fringed s.h.i.+rts and some were naked from the waist up. They stood so openly because they were out of rifle range and knew it.

Henry Winterson breathed, ”There they are!”

He rested his rifle across a window sill, took an interminable time to sight, and squeezed the trigger. One of the sixteen jerked awkwardly, as though he had stepped on something that slipped beneath his foot, and sat awkwardly down. The rest ran back into the shelter of the woods, and after a moment the wounded man rose to follow. There was a savage satisfaction in Winterson's voice.

”Winged me one anyhow! Wish I'd killed him!”

”How high did you hold on him?” Joe asked.

”About a foot over his head. Still probably caught him too low down.

Wish I'd given it another foot!”

There came five quick shots from behind the cabin. Ellis took two slow forward steps, turned to smile at the others, and managed only a fatuous grin. Blood bubbled down the side of his head, giving his hair a seal-sleek look and reddening his cheek. Joe caught him as he slumped backward while Winterson plucked the rifle from his hand. Barbara gasped and knelt beside her lover.

Her face was pale and terrible fear and shock glittered in her eyes.

But there was hot anger in them too as she took Ellis's head tenderly on her lap while his blood reddened her skirt. Emma came with a cold compress and Barbara took it from her hand. Her voice was dull and trembling, but at the same time she showed her inner strength.

”Let me do it, Mother.”

She applied the compress to Ellis's head while she bent tenderly over him. Barbara, who had always hidden when anything she liked was hurt, rose to the occasion when one she loved was injured. Joe said awkwardly,

”Let's move him to a bed.”

And Barbara said fiercely, ”Leave him alone!”

She sopped up the bubbling blood and Emma brought her a clean compress.

Joe, Winterson and Tad went to the rear, but again all they saw was the mowed area, the tall gra.s.s and the forest. Up in the forest one of the attackers shouted, probably advice to someone on the opposite hill. Joe furrowed his brow.

They were doing things wrong, with everybody rus.h.i.+ng to wherever an Indian appeared. That left three walls unguarded all the time, and they must inject some system into their defense. Besides, there was another and very deadly peril that could be lessened. No bullet could tear through the logs, but one might penetrate the c.h.i.n.king or the windows.

Joe called, ”Emma, get the kids on the floor, will you? You womenfolk had better get there, too. Lie behind the sill log and you can't get hit.”

Emma said, ”I'll get them down.”

”We'd better do things a little differently, too. Tad, you watch the north side. Henry, do you want the front or the rear?”

”The front for me!” Winterson bit his words off and spat them out. ”They might have another pow-wow and I know I can reach 'em the next time. How about the south wall?”

”One of us'll have to slide over there now and again to watch.”

Barbara said steadily, ”Mother, will you bring me a pillow?”

Emma brought it and, very gently, Barbara transferred Ellis's bandaged head from her lap to the pillow. She stood and for a long moment looked down at him while Ellis moaned fretfully and moved. Then she took his rifle and went to the south wall.

”Bobby!” Joe protested.