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Authors: J. T. Edson
Tags: Western
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Ysabel Kid had not been murdered. He put the reaction down to Fire Dancer realizing the Kid’s influence on the thinking of the tribal leaders; little knowing that the hatred went much further back than the organization of the treaty council.
For a prisoner, Fire Dancer had done well. She became adopted into the Pehnane and married, as fourth wife, a name-warrior called Bitter Root. Defying convention, she worked herself into the position of pairaivo , easing the original first wife from their husband’s favour. Everything had been going in keeping with Fire Dancer’s ideas of the fitness of life when her husband provoked a fatal quarrel with Sam Ysabel.
After that Fire Dancer’s numerous sins bounced rapidly back on to her heads The other wives moved fast, repaying her for slights and indignities heaped on them by the young pairaivo , Having fathers and brothers to back their claims, the three wives saw that the division of their departed husband’s property satisfied them. From being the rich, spoiled pairaivo , Fire Dancer found herself turned into a widow dependant on the charity of the tribe, She blamed her misfortune on Sam Ysabel, although he did not start the fatal fight, and swore revenge against the white man,
With the Latin’s capacity for hate and retaining grudges, she bided her time. Leaving the Pehnane , Fire Dancer travelled to the Kweharehnuh , Antelope, band of the Comanche and settled among them. Four times she married and each husband met a mysterious death after raising her to pairaivo and willing her the bulk of his property. Fire Dancer befriended the Kweharehnuh witch-woman to such a degree that she learned many dark and sinister secrets. At last she felt the time had come to return to the Pehnane and extract vengeance on Bitter Root’s killer. She failed to achieve anything against Ysabel or his son. In fact her final effort cost several lives and the crippling of her son without bringing about her desire.
Fleeing from the vengeance which she expected to come, Fire Dancer brought her son at last to the Waw’ai band. A storm washed out their tracks and the Civil War of the white men further prevented Sam or Loncey Ysabel hunting her down. Among the Waw’ai , Fire Dancer gained a reputation as medicine woman and witch while her son developed into first a warrior, then war chief due to her driving will.
With the passing of time Fire Dancer’s hatred of the Ysabels grew and was transferred to the Pehnane , then the whole of the Comanche Nations Always she sought for a way in which she might bring ruin to the people who gave her a home and at least as good a life as she might have had in the small Mexican village from which a raiding party snatched her So when the word went out that the old-man chiefs of the major Nemenuh bands aimed to make peace, she thought her vengeance might come to nothing.
The peace council had not been arranged in a matter of days but worked for and developed over a period of almost two years. Attending talks in her capacity of Waw’ai medicine woman, certain facts became obvious even during the earliest meetings between Comanche and white negotiators. Realizing that peace did not meet with the approval of all white men, including some of those supposedly trying to make it, Fire Dancer turned her natural bent for intrigue and witch woman knowledge to good account. She found the right men and made her proposals. In return for certain concessions, which interested her less than the ultimate effect of her actions on the Comanche people — but proved necessary to lull the white men’s suspicions of her motives — Fire Dancer promised to keep alive the bad-feeling which existed between many of both peoples.
Using Salmon as a go-between, Fire Dancer and her white co-planners exchanged ideas. All the time, while most Comanche bands kept the peace, Sidewinder led his Waw’ai braves on raids of the most vicious kind and fed fuel to the flames a very vocal section of the
For a prisoner, Fire Dancer had done well. She became adopted into the Pehnane and married, as fourth wife, a name-warrior called Bitter Root. Defying convention, she worked herself into the position of pairaivo , easing the original first wife from their husband’s favour. Everything had been going in keeping with Fire Dancer’s ideas of the fitness of life when her husband provoked a fatal quarrel with Sam Ysabel.
After that Fire Dancer’s numerous sins bounced rapidly back on to her heads The other wives moved fast, repaying her for slights and indignities heaped on them by the young pairaivo , Having fathers and brothers to back their claims, the three wives saw that the division of their departed husband’s property satisfied them. From being the rich, spoiled pairaivo , Fire Dancer found herself turned into a widow dependant on the charity of the tribe, She blamed her misfortune on Sam Ysabel, although he did not start the fatal fight, and swore revenge against the white man,
With the Latin’s capacity for hate and retaining grudges, she bided her time. Leaving the Pehnane , Fire Dancer travelled to the Kweharehnuh , Antelope, band of the Comanche and settled among them. Four times she married and each husband met a mysterious death after raising her to pairaivo and willing her the bulk of his property. Fire Dancer befriended the Kweharehnuh witch-woman to such a degree that she learned many dark and sinister secrets. At last she felt the time had come to return to the Pehnane and extract vengeance on Bitter Root’s killer. She failed to achieve anything against Ysabel or his son. In fact her final effort cost several lives and the crippling of her son without bringing about her desire.
Fleeing from the vengeance which she expected to come, Fire Dancer brought her son at last to the Waw’ai band. A storm washed out their tracks and the Civil War of the white men further prevented Sam or Loncey Ysabel hunting her down. Among the Waw’ai , Fire Dancer gained a reputation as medicine woman and witch while her son developed into first a warrior, then war chief due to her driving will.
With the passing of time Fire Dancer’s hatred of the Ysabels grew and was transferred to the Pehnane , then the whole of the Comanche Nations Always she sought for a way in which she might bring ruin to the people who gave her a home and at least as good a life as she might have had in the small Mexican village from which a raiding party snatched her So when the word went out that the old-man chiefs of the major Nemenuh bands aimed to make peace, she thought her vengeance might come to nothing.
The peace council had not been arranged in a matter of days but worked for and developed over a period of almost two years. Attending talks in her capacity of Waw’ai medicine woman, certain facts became obvious even during the earliest meetings between Comanche and white negotiators. Realizing that peace did not meet with the approval of all white men, including some of those supposedly trying to make it, Fire Dancer turned her natural bent for intrigue and witch woman knowledge to good account. She found the right men and made her proposals. In return for certain concessions, which interested her less than the ultimate effect of her actions on the Comanche people — but proved necessary to lull the white men’s suspicions of her motives — Fire Dancer promised to keep alive the bad-feeling which existed between many of both peoples.
Using Salmon as a go-between, Fire Dancer and her white co-planners exchanged ideas. All the time, while most Comanche bands kept the peace, Sidewinder led his Waw’ai braves on raids of the most vicious kind and fed fuel to the flames a very vocal section of the
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