Читать книгу Shaman's Dream: The Modoc War - Lu Boone's Mattson - Страница 34

“Damnation!” The word shattered his teeth. “Damnation! Knapp!” He sputtered to a stop, wordless.

He could hear his furious agent off in the darkness shouting:

“Cease your firing! Cease your firing! Stop it! Sons of bitches! Cease firing!”

Meacham ran to the soldier nearest him and knocked his rifle away, erasing the proud smile from his now startled face. Behind the man another sat astride his horse, this one waving his saber. At the superintendent’s rush, he dropped its tip toward the ground and sat weaving, bewildered.

“Sir?” he cried.

“Stop this firing immediately! Get that animal out of here!”

The Klamath men and McKay peered out from under their wagon, and George Nurse came running into the dim circle of light near the fire, half shoving, half carrying a crazy-eyed and struggling sergeant.

“Drunk as the Lord!” Nurse exclaimed.

“Damnation! Knapp! Where in thunder are you?”

“I’m here,” the agent said, joining him, furious. “Give me that man!” he ordered Nurse. “Sergeant! Come with me! Get your men! Go on! March!” He shoved the soldier’s arm, nearly flattening him, and the two of them vanished back into the night.

In the heavy silence Meacham could hear Knapp’s gruff voice, now here, now there, followed by the slurred, to Meacham unintelligible, syllables of the sergeant. In the commotion at Jack’s lodge, he had the sense of hurrying figures; but soon there was only silence. The light that had shone through the roof-hole blinked out. The darkness was total except for the few glowing embers, the remains of his campfire. He sank down by it and waited for Knapp.

“Damnation!” he muttered one last time as he made out the figure of Toby coming past the wagons toward him.

“They gone!” she said.

“All of them?”

“Not all. Just a bunch of them, men. Jack. John Schonchin. Black Jim. Boston Charley. Euchoaks. Barncho. Slolux. Ten, twenty maybe. Where’s Frank?”

He didn’t know, and said so; hadn’t seen anything of him.

She slumped onto the ground next to him. He needed to think over the news she had brought him. She had run off a long list, most of the names he recognized as those of the leaders. They must be gathering to attack, and unlike his own party, they knew the lay of the land. He wondered where they might come from. Perhaps Toby could say.

“No. No, Meacham,” she said when he asked her. “That ain’t right.”

“What do you mean?” he asked, confused.

“You got it wrong. They ain’t going to attack you. They run off. They gone!”

“But where have they gone to? How will we find them?”

“Don’t know, Meacham. Don’t know. Maybe they went over other side of the river, headed for the other camp. Maybe they’re going down to lava beds. Better ask Mary. She start out with them, come on back. Probably because of her kids.”

The woman had dropped her head onto her knees. The mention of Jack’s sister, the knowledge that head men were out there someplace, only poorly armed -- the glimmering of an idea started to form itself in his mind, but if it were to work, they would have to hurry.

“Can you get Mary for me?” he asked. “Would you be able to go back and find her?”

When Toby heaved herself reluctantly to her feet, Meacham shouted into the night:

“Knapp! Knapp! Get over here! We have to act fast!”