Wilderness Giant Edition 4 by David Robbins

Author:David Robbins
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: david thompson, frontier action, piccadilly publishing, david l robbins, western fiction ebook, early american frontiersmen action, nate king and shakespeare mcnair
Publisher: Piccadilly Publishing

Thirteen

For Indians to take white women captive was not uncommon. As more and more greenhorns headed for the Promised Land, more and more encountered hostile tribes and either paid with their lives or were adopted. Women and children, at any rate. Men were usually killed outright, suffering the most devious torture imaginable.

As yet, however, the number of women going west was relatively low. Whenever one was captured, it soon became common knowledge, the word spreading from fort to fort, from camp fire to camp fire, so that all mountaineers would be on the lookout for her.

There had been no reports of missing white women in months. No one at Fort Hall had mentioned a recent abduction, and despite the ill will between the British and the Americans, the HBC men would have made a point of letting the Porter/Clark expedition know.

So it was that Nate King greeted the Shoshoko chief’s claim with skepticism. “You have taken one of our women?” he signed. “Why have we not heard of it?”

“You are the first white man we have told.”

“Bring her, that we may see for ourselves.”

“We will,” Coyote’s Brother signed, “but first we want to know what you will give for her. We want one hundred rifles, fifty knives, and half your horses.”

The demand had come full circle. Nate suspected a trick, but rather than brand the warrior a blatant liar, he signed, “Would you trade for something, sight unseen? No. You would ask to see what you were trading for to be sure it is worth what you would pay. You must let us see this woman, or we cannot make you an offer.”

“You will want to trade much for her. She is very beautiful.”

Nate signed, “If that is so, why do you want to part with her? Beautiful women are cherished by all tribes. Are the Shoshokos so different that they do not like beauty?”

“She is very beautiful by white standards,” Coyote’s Brother amended. “She is not so beautiful by ours.”

“Explain.”

The warrior showed uncertainty for the first time. He bit his lower lip, looked back at the ring of watching Diggers, and seemed to derive courage from their presence. “Our people have dark hair and dark skin. Our women have dark hair and dark skin. This is as it should be, as it has always been. We are happy, and it brings us good medicine.”

An inkling of the point the Digger was trying to make caused Nate to stiffen.

“Some white women have dark hair, like ours. But all white women have pale skin, which shows they do not have good health and explains why most are so weak and such poor walkers. They are bad medicine.” Coyote’s Brother paused. “It is worse medicine when they have pale skin and pale hair.”

“Pale hair?”

“Hair the color of the sun. The woman we want to trade has hair this color.”

“And her eyes?” Nate asked. “What color are they?”

“Like a lake. A deep lake.”

There was a sharp intake of breath behind Nate. He guessed

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