Navajo Night by Carol Ann Didier

Author:Carol Ann Didier
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2009-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

After a week had passed, Captain Cahill ordered Notah to be brought up out of the hole, fully expecting either a blithering idiot or a man half dead. To his shock and chagrin, he found neither. Although Notah certainly looked the worse for his treatment, he climbed out of the hole on his own and stood before the captain as composed as ever.

Cahill couldn’t believe it. He had commissioned several soldiers to spy on the hole to make sure Notah received no help from anyone and they had not reported anything amiss to him. He didn’t know which infuriated him more—Notah’s being alive or the look of contempt on his face, as if Cahill were some insignificant bug he need take no notice of.

It was all he could do not to order Notah back into the hole, but he knew the general would not stand for it a second time. He’d had a hard time convincing General Carleton and Colonel Carson that Notah deserved the punishment he’d given him while they were in Santa Fe. He had made it sound like Notah was practically raping JoAnna Lund when he came upon them, and that he felt he could not let this pass. He’d told them he did not “want any other redskin to think he could take liberties with white women.”

Although not convinced as to the veracity of Cahill’s statements, it was already too late to change the punishment by the time the officers returned late the night before. Today both men planned to talk to JoAnna and her father to get at the truth, for both Carleton and Carson knew enough about the Navajo’s regard for the Lunds to believe that there was more to this story than they had heard so far. They were present when Notah came up from the hole, as were JoAnna and her father.

General Carleton noted that neither of the Lunds looked angry or fearful of Notah’s release. Rather they looked sad and upset.

Looking at Notah, Colonel Carson said, “With your permission, sir, I would like to talk with Notah privately about this incident. Something just doesn’t ring true to me about it.”

“Yes, I agree,” answered Carleton. “Just look at him standing there…it must be true what they say about him being a medicine man with supernatural powers. He certainly doesn’t look as bad as I expected. What do your suppose accounts for that, Colonel?”

“I don’t know. I certainly expected him to be in pain and agony and much thinner. At the least, thirst should have gotten to him by now. But I can tell you, I have witnessed some strange things in his presence.”

“Like what?”

“Well, one time he called down lightning to strike near a man who had stolen another man’s wife and sheep. It didn’t kill him, but it scared him half to death, and he returned both sheep and wife. Another time, he took a child’s broken arm in his hands, held the bones together for a minute and then released the arm; the boy scampered off to play as if nothing had been broken at all.

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