Swift Horse

She looked to the right.

She looked to the left.

When she found thick brush and trees at her right side, she rode hurriedly toward them. She dismounted and clung to the reins to wait for the stranger to ride past. Then she would resume her own journey into the night and hope that the good Lord above would guide her in the right direction.

The horse was now so close she could hear its heaving as it rode hard in the night. Marsha stared through the brush so that she might be able to see the rider’s face.

If it was a renegade, she would soon know.

It was as though a breath of fresh air had suddenly been blown onto Marsha’s face when she saw just who it was! “Swift Horse!” she cried, running out into his horse’s path.

Swift Horse could hardly believe his eyes. There his woman stood, waving him down . . . unharmed!

He drew a tight rein, causing his horse to stop abruptly. He still couldn’t believe his eyes. He had prayed to the Supreme God in the Heavens, the Master of Breath, that he would find Marsha—and not injured in any way—and his prayer had been answered.

There his woman was, and she wasn’t injured! Not in any way that was visible to him, at least.

He knew that the trauma of the situation had surely caused her much inward pain. He would kiss it away!

He leaped from his horse and grabbed Marsha into his arms. He held her tightly, aware of how much she was trembling and clinging to him.

“It was One Eye!” she cried. “He . . . he . . . abducted me.” She eased from his arms and gazed up into his eyes, the moon still high and bright above them.

“But I was first taken by the cowkeeper,” she said, still finding it incredible that Swift Horse was there, and that she was going to be all right!

“I know,” Swift Horse said, his arms still around her waist, his eyes devouring her. “I followed the tracks to the cowkeeper’s house. I went inside. I found him.”

“One Eye killed him,” Marsha gulped out, recalling the viciousness of the attack with the knife.

“He lived long enough to say three words,” Swift Horse said softly. “He said one, eye, and Marsha.”

“Then you know!” Marsha cried. “You finally know that the one-eyed man was One Eye!”

“The cowkeeper did not identify the man specifically,” Swift Horse said thickly. “He said one eye, not that it was One Eye.”

“Are you saying that you still don’t believe it was One Eye?” Marsha said, finding it hard not to shout at him. How could he not believe that it was One Eye? How could she ever make him believe it if he did not believe it now?

“I still cannot see my friend as a renegade,” Swift Horse said. “Was this man dressed as a renegade—or as One Eye dresses?”

“As . . .” Marsha gulped out: “He wore a breechclout and war paint on his face.”

“Then do you not see?” Swift Horse said, so wanting to believe that his friend could not have done this thing. “One Eye has never worn a breechclout or the paint of a renegade.”

“Of course he wouldn’t in front of you,” Marsha cried, getting more frustrated by the minute. “Or anyone else he wanted to fool.”

She hung her head, then gazed into Swift Horse’s eyes. “It was all so horrible,” she sobbed. “Alan Burton abducted me from my home then locked me in a room with no windows. He kept the door hidden behind a chifforobe. He had it slid aside and was forcing whiskey on me when One Eye arrived. After One Eye plunged the knife into Alan Burton’s back, he took me. I’m not sure what his final plans were for me.”

Swift Horse slowly shook his head back and forth. “I still cannot accept that One Eye is the one who did this to you,” he said tightly, then his eyes widened. “Marsha, how did you escape?”

She quickly explained how it had happened.

“I’m not sure if he is dead or alive,” she gulped out. “I was afraid to get close enough to check his pulse. I was so afraid that he’d grab me and kill me before he

died himself.”

“Can you remember where you left the man?” Swift Horse asked, searching her eyes.

“I’m so lost,” she cried. “I’m not sure of anything.” Then she said, “But we can’t be that far from where I left him, because I haven’t been traveling for all that long.”