The Confederate 3 by Forrest A. Randolph

Author:Forrest A. Randolph
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: american civil war, renegades, thomas stonewall jackson, sharps rifle, revenge story, piccadilly publishing, general robert e lee, best western ebook, western pulp ficition
Publisher: Piccadilly

Children ran ahead of the horses, yelling shrilly and laughing gleefully. Soon their news was taken up by the camp crier and, by the time Damien halted the column in the center of the village, the civil chief stood before his lodge, arms folded across his chest. On a chain of heavy silver links hung a huge silver gorget, of the type once worn by European armies to designate an officer. This one bore a profile likeness of George Washington and the words, in English, ‘Peace and Cooperation.’

“Ho! You are welcome, pony soldiers. Get down and stay a while. My eyes tell me that the winds whisper truth and our white brothers come to protect us from the marauders,” the chief remarked in high-pitched, singsong English. “We will feast and you will tell us of what has been done. Welcome, welcome.”

This band had not been one visited on the way out and, after the formalities had ended, Griffin Stark made quick to ask his eternal questions. To his consternation, after so many times hearing the opposite, he could hardly believe the wrinkle-faced old civil chief.

“Yes. I know of this boy. I saw him in the last Moon of Falling Leaves. Although he had shiny black eyes and a ridge of cheek bone high like one of the people and his skin was dark as any boy in the village, his hair was the color of snow. He swam like any boy of the people and spoke little, but well. He was called Snow Rabbit.”

Inwardly, Griffin trembled so that he could hardly form the words of his next question. “And which village was it, Chief Black Horn?”

The old man smiled. He could sense the intensity behind this white man’s outward appearance of calm. “In that of my good friend, Blunt and his war chief, Two Otters. The boy was Two Otters’ son.”

For a moment hope crumbled in Griffin’s breast. “You say Blunt and Two Otters are your friends. Then … you have seen this boy many times before?”

“No. Two Otters had another son until two Moons of Tall Grass ago. The child went off to the Spirits. The Great Spirit sent this boy to replace the first one.”

It had to be Jeremy. Griffin held onto that thought as he asked, “Where is Two Otters camped?”

“Beyond the Flatheads. The other side of what you whites call Marias Pass. It is good land. Still many buffalo. No whites live there.”

Griffin turned appealingly to Damien. As matters stood, they were headed the wrong way. A week’s travel to the west would see him reunited with his son. “I know this boy is Jeremy. We, I, ought to go out there after him.”

“I’d like nothing better than to give you the opportunity. But with the Snakes still out raiding, there’s no way I will let you go alone or with anything less than a large escort. I have my orders. We must return to the outpost. Once this little uprising is put down, I’ll let you have a whole platoon if you feel you need them.

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