Read Online Somewhere Beyond Reproach by Tim Jeal - Free Book Online Page B

drain into the placid waters of their once idyllic stream. I looked at Andrew’s face in silhouette, as he craned forward to get a better view. I saw the look of complete absorption that I must once have worn in similar circumstances . I thought back. I had always favoured soldiers to cowboys and Indians; since my childhood was during thewar I generally got what I wanted. Contests between ‘our fighting boys’ and the Hun; children’s cut-price Saturday shows. Then home again to knock down toy soldiers with matchsticks fired from unreliable cannons. There had been slaughters as splendid as Bunker Hill, only in my battles the victims rarely had red coats; only a few for realism.
    Two American Army soldiers were being chased along a gorge by a band of Indians. The soldiers were carrying news of the farm massacre. Soon both the blue-coated riders’ horses had been hit. With their backs to a rock they fought on gamely. The Indians fell like ninepins but in the end the superior numbers told. The last soldier fought on for several minutes before heroism received the inevitable reward of a hero’s death.
    I looked sideways at Andrew again. I saw that he was clutching the arms of his chair. I should like to have taken his hand. I thought of the love that Dinah must feel for him. For several minutes the child became much more than a device for gaining my ends. He was wearing shorts. Shorts in December. I looked at his bare and hairless knees with sympathy. I reached out a hand and squeezed his right leg.
    ‘Are you enjoying it?’ I whispered.
    ‘Shush!’
    The scene switched to an American Army camp complete with watch tower and wooden palisading. Two officers were talking heatedly. One, who appeared to be the commanding officer, said:
    ‘To hell with the promised supplies. I’m going to finish Running Bull once and for all.’
    The other officer stepped forward till he was almost treading on his superior’s toes:
    ‘But those Indians are starving. There’s been no rain for seven months. If you were starving would you just sit on your arse in a reserve and wait till you dropped dead?’
    ‘Supplies were promised only on condition that they stopped in their reservation.’
    ‘Those supplies should have been sent months ago.’
    ‘Do you know what they did to two of our scouts?’ Thespeaker paused. We were given a close up of his bloodshot eyes. ‘I’ll tell you …’ Another pause, then he whispered with almost sadistic satisfaction: ‘They mutilated them. They’re nothing but savages.’
    ‘They’re dying of starvation.’
    ‘Lieutenant, just get out there and give the orders for an advance.’ He turned away and then spat out of the corner of a sneering mouth: ‘Unless you want to see what they did to those men.’
    A close-up of the military man tortured by his scruples. Then a quick salute.
    The scene ended with a long blue column of riders thundering out of the camp gates. The flag fluttered proudly at their head. A trail of dust clouds stretched out behind.
    ‘Who do you think is going to win?’ I whispered.
    ‘The army of course,’ he replied without a moment’s hesitation .
    ‘Doesn’t it spoil it if you know who’s going to win?’
    ‘No,’ he said abruptly and raised a hand to keep me quiet.
    The army did win. The battle was long and hard. The Indian force died three times over; unless those already shot had been pretending. A cunning Indian who had shammed dead was about to cut down the commanding officer. I saw Andrew’s mouth open as if to warn him. The film makers however had decided that such an inhuman monster must surely die. The lieutenant risked his own life as he bent over him and unfastened his tunic. The bloodshot eyes closed for the last time. In the end only Running Bull and a handful of braves survived to be led back to their reserves. The Lieutenant signed a paper giving the necessary supplies to the Indians, neither would the vultures go hungry.
    When we got out it was