Read Online Far as the Eye Can See by Robert Bausch - Free Book Online Page A

Theo puffed, then passed it back toward the chief. When it got to him, he puffed it again, then passed it to his left and eventually it got around to me. I held it briefly, wondering at the sweet aroma. It was tobacco, but there was something else in it too. I puffed gently, inhaled it, and then passed the pipe back. The smoke was hot and almost made me cough. If I believed in a God, I’d of been praying very hard not to cough. But then one of the braves on my right coughed a bit and nobody seemed to notice. When the pipe was finished, Twines His Horse’s Tail spoke.
    Big Tree looked gravely at General Cooney and me. “Women are grieving today,” he said. “They are cutting off their own fingers in their grief.”
    Twines His Horse’s Tail waited for Big Tree to tell us what he said, then went on. “The dead man had many fathers. Many mothers,” Big Tree said.
    Cooney looked puzzled but said nothing. I looked at Theo. He never took his eyes off the chief.
    The chief glared at me when I turned back to him. I said nothing and there was a long pause that I thought I might of caused. But then I realized that the chief was waiting to see what Cooney had to say. Big Tree said to him, “What do you say?”
    “I made a mistake,” Cooney said, his voice shaking. He really did feel it, I think. “I am sorry.”
    Big Tree spoke those words in Crow and the chief nodded.
    “What do you offer?” Big Tree said.
    Cooney said, “I have two horses.”
    Big Tree said that in Crow.
    There was no response. It was quiet for a long time, then Cooney realized he had to say more. “I have a Springfield rifle, and two Confederate pistols.”
    When Big Tree spoke, Twines His Horse’s Tail said something emphatically, but his face was not angry. It was stern, maybe, but not angry.
    “He says to keep your pistols,” Big Tree said. “He will take the horses and the rifle.”
    There were nods and stern frowns all around. I know there was grieving somewhere in that camp but I didn’t hear none. When we all of us stood up, the braves didn’t want to look nobody in the eye. They kept their heads down and bowed out of the tepee, but I think they was proud of their leader and glad of the outcome.
    As we got ready to depart, Theo said something to Twines His Horse’s Tail. They spoke quietly for a while, then shook hands. Theo come up behind me as we walked back to the circle of wagons outside the fort. “I think I know what happened to Preston,” he said.
    I stopped, but he got up to me and said, “Keep walking.”
    When we got back to our camp, I went with Theo to get water. We walked in silence down to the riverbank, each carrying two buckets. We filled them both with water. We started back up the bank, and still Theo said nothing. I had my carbine slung over my shoulder but it kept slipping down because of the two heavy buckets I was hauling. I had to keep stopping and putting the thing back in place.
    Finally I put the buckets down. Theo said, “Put the sling over your head and carry the rifle across your back.”
    I’d already had that idea and was in the process of doing just that. “I don’t generally like it this way,” I said. “I can’t get it in hand and ready to shoot very fast if I got to pull it up over my head.”
    “I reckon you’d ought to’ve had enough of shooting fast.”
    “It wasn’t me,” I said.
    “You won’t need the gun here.” He set his buckets down and waited for me.
    When I had the rifle in place and was ready to start again, I said, “What’d you find out about Preston?”
    “I just traded two army mules to Twines His Horse’s Tail for his wagon.”
    “That was Preston’s wagon?”
    He nodded.
    “How do you know that?”
    “Didn’t you see the back wheel? It was missing a spoke. I used a axe handle to repair it.”
    “It was the same one?”
    “Unmistakable.”
    “So the Crow killed him?”
    “No. I don’t think so. Like I said, they’re on our side. But Twines His Horse’s