make our own gunpowder.
'Komi,' I suggested, 'let us go together to the mountains. We will visit the caves, hunt, and look for sulphur. Also, we can take a bit of food to eat as the English do on a Sunday.'
'How do they eat?'
'On Sunday they do not work, so sometimes one family, sometimes several, will go together to the seashore, a lake, or a river and there in the shade of trees they will eat their food. It is a quiet time for all, a relaxing time.
'The children will run and play, the older people will laze about, talking, sleeping, sometimes singing. It is sometimes called a picnic.'
'Good! We will eat a picnic. Paisano will carry the lunch and some robes to sit upon.'
We were like children, and happy children at that. Sometimes back at Shooting Creek when we were very young we had gone out like this with our father and mother and others of the family or our friends. It brought good memories, and as we walked along I shared them with Komi.
'I was the quiet one. I did not run and play as much as the others, but I loved it all very much. I liked just to sit and watch, although they were always trying to get me into their games. They could never understand that I was happier just watching them be happy.'
As we neared the place where the creek flowed down from the mountains there was a meadow, a deep pool in the creek, and a place where aspen came close to the water's edge. The aspen leaves whispered in the slightest movement of air and it was quiet and serenely beautiful.
'Jubal, why don't we stay right here? We will find nothing up on the mountain that is half so beautiful.'
Well, why not?
We spread our robes by the pool and I started a small fire to make coffee, of which we now had a good quantity from Diego.
When the smell of coffee was in the air I took up my bow and walked out, looking for a deer or an elk. The meadows I could see were empty, yet far away something stirred in the trees. Shading my eyes, I looked toward it but could see nothing. The mountain loomed above us. The Ponca woman who had been there as a young girl had said there were lakes up there, too. Someday we would go there, Komi and I.
It was time we started back. There would be time for hunting after we had eaten.
Where was Paisano? He had followed me, but now he was nowhere about. I called and then started back, walking slowly. The sun was warm and pleasant.
Far across the valley, back along the way we had come, I saw a lone figure. Someone was coming toward us, still a long way off.
Smoke lifted from our fire. Komi was nowhere in sight.
Putting down my bow I began gathering sticks for the fire, stopping now and again to call out for her. Still no response.
Worried, I dumped my load of sticks, glancing around. In the distance the lone figure was still coming, drawing nearer but still far off. Yet he was walking not running, and if it was somebody from the fort and there was trouble, he or she would be running.
Something large and dark moved in the edge of the woods. 'Paisano?'
What could he be doing that he did not come when I called? And where was Komi? Our coffee would bubble away.
She might be looking for herbs, which we gathered against times of trouble. Placing my bow beside the quiver of arrows near where our coffeepot bubbled, I started into the woods.
'Komi? Come on! The coffee's ready!'
Walking through the small patch of woods I came on an open place covered with clumps of scrub oak. And as I came in sight of it, Komi burst from the woods, running wild and frightened.
'Komi!Here! '
She screamed at me, waving frantically for me to leave.'Run!' she screamed the word, and I ran toward her.
'No! No!Run! '
Catching her arm, I said, 'What is it? What'swrong? ' She started to run again, tugging at me. 'Please!Run!' Her panic bread panic in me, catching her arm I, too, started to run. Behind me there was a crashing in the clump of oaks, and glancing over my shoulder, I saw it.
A monstrous thing with great ears spread wide, two gleaming white tusks. Suddenly I was choking with horror. This was my dream! My nightmare! This beast, this impossible thing, this--
It saw us.
For one frightening, awful moment it stared, and then with a blast as from a great trumpet, it started for us. We turned to flee, and Komi tripped and fell flat.
It charged.
Lifting my gun, I fired, dropped the muzzle to load, and fired again. Whether the balls took effect, I could not say. I only know that as the elephant charged, I steadied my hand and fired again, aiming for the gaping mouth. I dropped the muzzle--
This was why I had not fled. Komi lay at my feet, struggling to rise. The mammoth, for such it was, was almost upon us. Then there was a bellow, and something charged across my vision.
Paisano!
Head down, he charged the mammoth and hit him just back of the foreleg, knocking the larger beast into the brush. Before it could so much as swing around, Paisano whipped his head about, ripping the monster's hide with a horn.
Struggling erect, the mammoth swung its great head around and lunged at Paisano. Amazingly, the buffalo veered away and then charged again, raking the mammoth left and right with his horns.
Grabbing Itchakomi's arm I jerked her to her feet. 'Run!' I gasped. 'Run and hide!'
I could not leave Paisano.
The huge buffalo had a streak of blood along his side where he had been raked by a tusk, but he charged again, smashing the mammoth back into the trees. Whether by accident or intent Paisano had attacked from the side, avoiding the tusks. Now the monster reached for a grip on a horn with its trunk, but Paisano lowered his great head and butted the mammoth again.
Steadying my hand, I held my fire, and when the monster swung his great head to bring his tusks into play, I shot him in the ear.
It was as if I had struck him with a fly whisk. He shook his great head and turned again to confront Paisano.
What could I do? The monster was three or four times the size of Paisano, but the buffalo bull was undaunted. He bellowed a challenge as the mammoth swung around and charged. Tusks low, trunk curled back out of harm's way, his little eyes red with fury, he drove at Paisano. I would have expected Paisano to meet him head on, but the buffalo bull was a wily fighter. He swung suddenly aside, avoiding the long tusks and hooking a short sharp horn at the monster's shoulder, ripping a gash.
My pistol was ready, and I waited my chance. The roaring of the bull and the trumpetlike blasts from the mammoth were deafening. Now they faced each other again, and Paisano was dwarfed by the mammoth. Moving carefully, I started to work myself around to one side to get in a shot. Paisano had come to my rescue and I could not desert him now. Suddenly Komi was beside me, gripping a spear.
'Get away from here,' I said. 'You'll be killed!'
'If you die I shall die with you. I can use a spear.'
Blood dripped from Paisano's nostrils. He shook his huge head and began moving forward, warily, like a boxer moving in on an opponent. The great beast swung to face him, and then the mammoth seemed to see me for the first time. With a blast from his great throat, he charged. Holding steady I aimed for his eye and squeezed off my shot, using my left hand to steady the barrel.
Paisano swung his head and lunged, smashing the mammoth again in the side, where the leg joined the body. He struck with terrific impact, and the mammoth staggered and fell.
It struggled to rise, blood running from the eye socket, for a dread moment I thought the beast would rise, but it failed at last and sank down. Again it tried to rise, and mercilessly, Paisano charged, striking the monster in
