Swift Horse

Chapter 4

How calm it was!—the silence there

By such a chain was bound

That even the busy woodpecker

Made stiller by her sound

The inviolable quietness....

—Percy Bysshe Shelley

Just as Swift Horse was about to leave his cabin for the morning council with his warriors, he stopped and listened.

There it was again.

His horses were restless and neighing. That had to mean that someone might be in, or near, his corral, for his horses were normally content, especially this early in the morning.

Even his sister wasn’t at Swift Horse’s cabin yet.

Most days she was up before Swift Horse, preparing their morning meal, but today’s council about the cowkeeper was to be held at daybreak so that nothing would interfere with the council.

Although Swift Horse felt that he had finally made the cowkeeper realize that he meant business about the cows, it was Alan Burton’s belligerent manner that made Swift Horse think that there would more than likely still be confrontations with the red-whiskered man.

He believed that warnings did not mean all that much to the cowkeeper, and plans must be made to stop him, once and for all.

There!

He heard it again! The horses were growing more uneasy.

“Brother, what is causing the horses to make so much noise that it awakened me?” Soft Wind asked, walking into the cabin in her doeskin dress and moccasins, yawning and stretching her arms above her head.

Then she stopped and gazed in wonder at Swift Horse. “And why are you up so early?” she asked, forking an eyebrow. “What troubles you, brother? You are dressed already, which means that you had to have been dressed before the horses began making those unusual noises.”

“An early council is planned to discuss the cowkeeper,” Swift Horse said, looking past her and through a window.

He tensed up when he saw a movement outside just past his pole corral at the back of the cabin.

“What is it?” Soft Wind asked as she saw her brother’s eyes narrow as he grabbed his rifle, which stood beside the door.

“Someone is out back,” Swift Horse said, turning and opening the door. He looked at Soft Wind over his shoulder. “Lock the door behind me!”

Suddenly afraid, Soft Wind did as he said, then went to the window and gazed from it.

She was stunned when she saw a man with black skin limping toward Swift Horse’s storage building at the back of the yard.

Soft Wind gasped and placed a hand to her mouth when she saw deep, bloody-looking scars on his bare back, and the look of horror on his face when he looked over his shoulder and saw Swift Horse running toward him, shouting, “Stop.”

Chapter 5

I shut my eyes and turned them on my heart.

—Robert Browning

“Stop!” Swift Horse shouted again, cringing when he saw the terrible deep and bloody scars on the black man’s bare back as he continued to limp toward the opened door of the storage shed.

“Do not be afraid,” Swift Horse tried to reassure him. “You are among friends. My people do not have slaves. We do not believe in slavery!”