The Last Ride of Caleb O'Toole by Eric Pierpoint

Author:Eric Pierpoint
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Published: 2013-07-16T04:00:00+00:00

Caleb struggled to breathe, to gain some sense of his wits. All seemed lost in his nightmare of pain. He choked on the dust that kicked up in the blowing wind. Why was he in the wagon? Why were they stopped? He could barely lift his head he was so weak. His breath came ragged. He finally managed to ease himself up a few inches. In the fog of his mind, he could see men in black dusters coming toward him. The Blackstones! Caleb reached for his Sharps and weakly pulled back the hammer to check for a bullet. His movements were like lead, his reactions gone. The men in black were nearly alongside him. Caleb found a bullet in his pocket and chambered the round. His hands shook as he tried to lift his rifle.

“Julie,” he called weakly to his sister. “They’re here. Julie, the Blackstones!”

“Easy, Caleb,” said Julie as she leaned toward him and took the Sharps from his hands. “There are no Blackstones.” She reassured Caleb and stroked his sweating brow, cooling it with a wet cloth. “It’s all right, they’re Mormons. Those men in the black coats are leaders. Their wagons crossed over the river at Fort Laramie. They’ve been trailing us. They’re all headed to Utah and the Mormon Trail. We’re just outside Fort Fetterman.”

“Fort Fetterman?” Caleb tried to shake himself alert and grasp where they were. “But, that’s well over a hundred miles from…”

“From the attack in Scotts Bluff. I know. You have been in and out for days, and I thought we were going to lose you. You lost a lot of blood.”

“I can’t think…it’s all a haze. What happened?” Caleb wondered as he tried to piece the events together. Gingerly he touched his bandaged shoulder and winced from the pain. His head was bandaged too, and he ached all over. “The last thing I remember is the Indians stopped shooting.”

“Captain Bellows made a truce with the Sioux and gave them some of the oxen and some horses,” said Julie as she checked Caleb’s bandages. “We picked up a troop escort from Fort Laramie after that.”

“What, a truce? Why did they take the oxen?”

“It was payment for what the settlers did to the buffalo. They attacked us because of the buffalo. We lost nearly twenty people, and the Sioux lost many as well.” Julie saw in Caleb’s eyes the pain of the battle.

“They let us go,” Caleb wondered aloud. “After all that, it was because of the buffalo. People killed each other because of…I killed because…”

“I see he’s up!” Captain Bellows walked up with some of his sentries who fell in step behind him. “Corporal Posey!”

“Yes, Captain Bellows!” snapped Posey.

“Bring me that Henry rifle!” ordered Bellows as he peered hard at Caleb, a whisper of a smile appearing on his weathered lips.

“Got it right here, sir!” Posey and other men gathered around Caleb.

Bellows grabbed the rifle and checked the chamber. “You men think anyone else deserves this rifle more than this brave young soldier here?”

“No, sir!” shouted the former soldiers.

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