* * *
Morning saw a large crowd of gold miners gathered outside the fort and demanding the heads of the three Indians whose parents had left behind when Mariana was kidnapped the night before. Since everyone had been accounted for except the missing girl, the murder charge brought against the Indian children was officially still in effect, the sheriff had said, until Mariana was found alive and well. Unfortunately, this gave Lieutenant Colonel Custer the legal support he’d never asked for when he had decided to detain the children against superior command.
“Private Conrad will take the little girl on his horse as a safeguard,” the lieutenant colonel said. “The other two will be put in the Iron Cage. Watch their every move. Silent One and Eagle Eye will go with them, and the other Crow scouts will be further behind to lead us. Am I clear?”
“Yes, sir,” the men chorused in agreement.
“Good. Now bring out the Indians and tie them up. We leave immediately.”
Matthew and the girls were brought out from the prison house and their hands tied behind their backs. Before them stood the Iron Cage, a mobile cell concealed in a horse drawn cart with only one narrow window behind and up front.
“Oh, my God, it’s started,” Nora said, fearfully staring at this contraption. She looked around at the wide array of activities being undertaken by Custer’s troops in preparation for the expedition ahead and her knees became weak. “I can’t believe I’m seeing this.”
“Food,” Stephanie repeated in English, but nobody wanted to notice her. “I am hungry, mister,” she told the guard behind her, but he didn’t respond, since she was speaking in her native tongue. She started crying and he hurried her to Conrad.
“We need food,” Matthew shouted in despair. “We hungry.”
“Put them in the cage,” Custer ordered his men. “They’ll eat when they get to the reservation.”
“Those before the fort will hamper our exit, sir,” Major Reno observed. He sat on a gray horse.
“They will disperse when I order them to,” his superior informed him and turned to a dispatch rider. “Get to Fort Strong and tell the general we’re on our way.”
“Yes, sir.”
“History’s about to repeat itself,” Nora whispered with a shaking voice before she was pushed into the Iron Cage. “I—I just hope we can still escape before the battle starts,” she told a frightened Matthew who, although he nodded without a word, knew that there was only a slim chance of this actually happening. The other night’s event was still fresh in his memory, and would be for a long time to come!
“Open the gates,” Custer ordered.
“Open the gates,” Reno ordered.
And the gates where thrown open.
“Where are those scoundrels?” a protester shouted before the gate.
“They must be killed for Mariana’s sake,” another screamed, but the troops inside prevented majority from crossing the gate line.
“Matthew!” Stephanie shouted on Conrad’s horse. “Matthew, save me!” She had tears on her cheeks and in her eyes, and couldn’t see her foster brother or her sister anywhere near. “Kora, where you?”
“She’s safe, little one,” Conrad assured as he cleaned off her tears with his gloved left hand.
Nora saw this kind gesture and smiled despite her situation.
“Yeah,” Matthew agreed, watching this beside her. “He’ll wipe away her tears and later shoot her in the back.”
“He’ll do no such thing,” Nora told him. “I don’t think he has that kind of heart.”
“I don’t think he’s sincere, either.”
“Oh, shut up,” she said. “Who says you now have the right to judge anyone after your blunder last night?”
“And what does that have to do with this?”
“A lot?”
“Where Kora?” Stephanie asked her new friend, and the sniper pointed at the hooded cart, although this didn’t help matters, especially when the little girl saw Tom climb his horse and remembered who he was from the night before.
“Kora,” she cried. “Kora, where you?”
“She’s in the cart,” Tom snapped. “And you’ll join her if you don’t keep quiet.”
“Nora,” Stephanie continued. Conrad thought she meant ‘Kora.’
“There is one,” a bearded young man pointed out in the crowd before them. “Her head for Mariana!” he shouted.
“Her head for Mariana! Her head for Mariana!” the crowd picked up beyond the gate line.
“Stephanie!” Nora called out to her sister. The cart wasn’t near the sniper’s horse, so there was little chance of her being heard above the din being generated by the rioters outside the fort. “Stephanie, stop shouting,” she begged. “They’ll kill you if you don’t!”
“Stephanie,” Matthew assisted. “Stephanie, please stop!” He tried to show himself to his younger sister by putting his head close to the metal bars and thought she spotted him. “Stephanie, stop shouting!”
Some miners made to cross the gate, but foot soldiers threatened them back. “Her head for Mariana! Her head for Mariana!” they continued shouting despite their retreat. Custer’s cavalrymen were beginning to mount their horses and on noticing this, the rioters surged forward again. “Her head for Mariana! Her head for Mariana!”
“Silence!” the lieutenant colonel suddenly ordered atop his black mount, and the people wondered why he was being so mean. Emerging from the midst of his men, his authoritative presence caused a cold calm to radiate from him out over the gathered miners. “Tom,” he shouted, and the soldier trooped out on his horse, grinning broadly. Custer turned back to his audience with satisfaction. “As you can see, Tom is here with us today! You all know who he is, and together, we will find Mariana and revenge her death if her kidnappers have done such an abominable thing! This I assure you! Now, go home.”
They hesitated.
“What about her, officer?” the bearded man in the crowd angrily asked, pointing at Stephanie. “It’ll be good if she dies right now.” Those around him nodded in agreement.
“Why?” Custer asked him, laughing. “She’s just a kid and will be returned to the reservation with her brother and sister. They have nothing to do with this! Now, go home,” he stressed. “Leave before I start shooting.”
The people turned away one by one. The lieutenant colonel was no fun.
“Troop out, Major Reno,” Custer ordered. “They will make way for the horses.”
The riders had surrounded the hooded cart carrying Nora and Matthew and now made way for it to stop ahead of the regiment. Foot soldiers were positioned near it with their rifles poised on their shoulders should there be trouble from the slowly dispersing crowd.
There was none.
“Stay with the Crows, Conrad,” Custer ordered the sharpshooter. “Near the Bighorn River, you must release the Indians to continue on foot and lead you to their encampment! Kill the small one if they refuse to do so. Kill the big girl if they further refuse, but make sure you’re not spotted by the Sioux. Now go! General Terry will be here anytime soon and he must not know we still have the children.”
Mr. Sniper saluted and joined Silent One and Eagle Eye behind the Iron Cage. A Sioux deserter was driving the cart’s horse and would be told to stop before Yellowstone. There Kora and her brother would have to continue on foot.
“I’m going with him, sir,” Tom said, cocking his rifle on his horse. “May God have mercy on those holding my Mariana.”
“Yes! Show ‘em, Tom,” his old colleague said in support. “They said I cannot go with you ‘cause I’m getting too old for the army, but I’ll be there with you all the way.”
“Yes, Tom,” a boy who’d been around the night before shouted. “We hope you come back with Mariana alive and well.”
“Greet those Indians with your gun,” another cried. This fellow was with the little girl Mariana had been with when she was kidnapped. “Show ‘em no mercy, sir.”
“You’re free
to die anytime, Tom,” Custer waived. “After all, she’s your daughter.”
The lieutenant colonel laughed at his joke, but Mr. Tom never found it funny. Some people were like the lieutenant colonel. Always laughing at other people’s travails!