“He scares me now.”
“Yeah, but you didn’t think he was gonna hurt you, did you? You mind holdin’ this coffee cup? It’s burnin’ my hand.”
Maddie took the coffee and absently sipped it. “Why should anyone be afraid of him?”
“Beats me, but the colonel back at Fort Breck hates him.”
“Hates ’Ring? How could anyone hate ’Ring?”
Toby grinned at her. “You mind takin’ this sandwich for a minute? My hand’s beginnin’ to sweat. You see…Mind if I sit down?” Toby took the single folding chair and leaned forward. “You see, Colonel Harrison don’t like havin’ a full-fledged hero under him, makes him feel—”
“Inadequate?”
“That’s the very word the boy uses—that and a lot of other words. The colonel don’t know nothin’ about nothin’, and he’s afraid that the boy will get promoted and pretty soon the colonel will be callin’ the boy sir.”
“But doesn’t it take a long time to work your way up through the ranks? Surely the colonel will be retired by the time ’Ring makes a higher rank.”
“Not the way the boy is goin’ at it. He was a private just a few years ago.”
Maddie took a big bite of the bacon sandwich. “He did mention that, and, you know, at the time I didn’t even wonder how he was made an officer.”
Toby started to get up. “I guess I can tell you the story someday, but you got things to do. You know, with the worryin’ and all. I better leave you to it.”
“No, please stay. A story might help take my mind off ’Ring…and Laurel.”
“Well, all right,” Toby said, and sat back down. “It was about four years ago and we was at Fort Breck. Sometimes it seems like we always been at that place. Anyway, we was goin’ out on what they call a detail, but it was just to see if we could come up with some firewood. We do a lot of that sort of thing in the army. It’s a r
eal borin’ job, and that’s why so many men, ah…leave it, if you know what I mean.”
Maddie nodded. Deserters.
“So, we was ridin’ out and Captain Jackson was with us. There was about fifteen of us, a lot ’cause the Cheyennes was real mad. It seems the Cheyennes was gettin’ sick of the settlers puttin’ up houses on the Cheyenne land and killin’ off all the game. And the settlers—Lord! but I ain’t met a meaner bunch of people—they had the idea the only good Injun was a dead one, so they shot them for target practice. The Cheyennes didn’t take too well to that.”
Maddie knew all too well what the whites had done to the Indians.
“Since the army was there to protect the settlers—”
“Who had the guns.”
“Right you are. Well, anyway, the army was the Cheyennes’ enemy, so to speak, so on that day they decided to kill a few white soldiers.”
Toby was quiet for a moment. “They come out of nowhere. I think we was singin’ one of them talkin’ army songs and—”
“Cadences.”
“Yeah, them, and we didn’t hear nothin’. Them Cheyennes just run up on us and started shootin’. Captain Jackson was the first to go down—the Injuns probably wanted his pretty coat.”
Maddie thought there might be some truth in that.
Toby’s voice lowered. “I was one of the first to be shot. Got one in the shoulder and another in the leg.”
He took a breath. “All those men just plain panicked. Hell, they ain’t no more soldiers than I am. They was just farmers and men runnin’ from the law, whatever, and they joined the army to fill their bellies. Hardly any of ’em could ride a horse, much less shoot. When the Injuns started their attack, half of ’em fell off their horses.”
“ ’Ring took command,” Maddie said.
“That he did.” Toby grinned. “You ain’t never seen nothin’ until you’ve seen that boy in battle. I swear, he seems to get bigger. He started shoutin’ and orderin’ ever’body about and they didn’t know what to do, so they did what he said.”
“And what about you?”