someone in the back shouted.
“Yes he is! He’s back. He’s older. He wears black. No fancy curls on his head. No slick gunslinger clothes on him. But it’s him. It’s him every time we meet a Boston. Listen to me!”
“We did!” they shouted. “Sit down! Your turn’s done!”
John Schonchin was shaking, so pissed he couldn’t continue. Finally! That was good! Off to the side, Euchoaks raised his chant and the women’s voices followed his, singing.
The young man leaped into the swirling sound to take Schonchin’s place.
“Now I’ve got some questions, and I want answers. Toby, it seems to me like you’ve gone over to them. You shacked up with this Riddle, and you started thinking like them. What’s the difference between you and this Meacham? How come we should listen to you? Seems like you shed your skin, and when we’re listening to you, we’re hearing him.”
“Don’t let her speak!” one voice shouted, and a dozen more agreed.
“Sit down! Sit down! We don’t want to hear her. Give us Black Jim. What’s he say?”
“No. I’m not done. Toby, what’s your answer? And then I’ve got another question, for Keintpoos.”
“No you don’t. One at a time. Okay, let’s hear Toby. But then its Black Jim!”
She shoved her way into the center, pushing aside the taller men.
“A-tuck!!” she shouted. “All right! I’ll tell you. You know it already. But it could be you forgot: I’m Modoc! That’s why I’m telling you what I’m telling you. You have to ask Meacham how come he’s doing his talking; I’m doing mine on account of that. But I’m not Modoc like you big-mouth men! I’m Modoc like all the other women you hauled off to Yreka. We got sold into the Boston’s beds -- by you -- so you could get some saddle or a pony you took a fancy to. We learned more stuff there than just English, let me tell you. Now you can learn from us! First, we learned there’s lots of them. Lots! And we learned they’re strong. Strong! And we learned you can’t get away. If you do, they hunt you out and haul you back. And then, once they know you’ll run for it if you can, they lock you in. And that’s when it really gets bad.”
Some of the men muttered, but they let her finish.
“But we learned some other stuff. We learned you can live with them if you find the right one. That’s what this Meacham is, a right one. We learned you can get some of what they got. Maybe not much… .” She stopped long enough to let them catch up, then she bent forward and hissed at them: “… but it can be a lot more than nothing!”
She straightened up and looked over them.
“That’s not what this Meacham would tell you. It’s what a Modoc woman knows. That’s it! I’m done!”
She shoved back out through the circle, past Black Jim who was coming in to the center. He dodged past her, paying no attention to the women who were screeching to let Toby know she said right. He jumped into the center. “Listen to me now!” he shouted.
“Maybe I have’t been around much longer than Toby. Not long enough to see what John Schonchin and some of you others saw. But what he says is right! It isn’t just the old men think so. We shouldn’t go! Don’t listen to those women. They’ll always try to turn you down some easy path, thinking they can get you out of things. But I’ll tell you, there are some things you shouldn’t try to get out of. If you ever mean to call yourselves men from here on out, you better agree with me now: We won’t go! And we’re going to teach them to leave us be!”
Curley Headed Doctor shook his maned head and raised up his singing, and the noise from the men near the center made your head split. And when someone threw more brush on the fire, it was more than heat made everyone sweat!
#28
He must have fallen asleep. He couldn’t believe it, but surely that was it. All he knew for sure was that the gun blast seemed to come right over the place where the fire should have been. All he could think was that Knapp’s worst fears had come true and they had broken loose. They were in all directions, some still pouring out of the roof-hole, as far as he could make out. Shouting. So it would end like this! Meacham fumbled through his greatcoat, thinking to find the little derringer he had packed ashamedly into the inside pocket. Around him he heard the clash of metal and of cries in the night. Then he realized that what he was hearing had about it a too familiar ring. No Indians on this border, he thought, would know a Johnnie Reb yell! But someone did, and it was coming from right behind him
#29
“Listen!” someone at the back of the house shouted, in a voice that cut through the words of the speaker and silenced those who were goading him on. “Listen!” he repeated, and a hush descended on them.
The flat report and crash of gunfire, the sound of many horses running, the shout -- repeated! The men tore away from the fire, up the ladder, through the roof hole. You could hear them scrambling down outside, hear the sounds of them running, then nothing as the gunfire thinned and started to die. Gone from its proper place, Keintpoos’ rifle. And John Schonchin’s. They had gone out into the dark, and now there was just a silence while everyone listened. The gruff man’s voice in English barked orders, and then the guns stopped firing.
#30
“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