ex-con, a veteran gambler and drunk, and pretty much just a plain nuisance.
Longtree mulled this all over. Despite the fact that a few of them tended to drink and gamble, there was no thread that tied them together. And drinking and gambling hardly made them members of an elite club.
'Nothing more?'
'Well…they all hated the local Indians. I know that much. Most folks around here do,' Bowes said, unconcerned. 'I didn't know all of them that well, but I've dealt with them in my job. None of 'em really seemed to associate together. I've heard all of 'em talk about what they'd like to do with the injuns more than once.' Bowes shrugged. 'But there's a lot of folks around these parts with the same leanings. Those men were just like a lot of 'em.'
'There's a Blackfeet reservation outside town, isn't there?'
'Yeah, but I wouldn't advise going up there. They don't like white folks much. Especially ones that carry badges.'
'I'll keep it hidden.'
'You're crazy, Marshal.'
'Maybe, but I'm going.'
'Well don't expect me to drag yer body out come morning.'
Longtree just grinned.
4
Dewey Mayhew looked down on the sheriff. 'Had yourself a good toot, did ya?' he said.
Lauters grimaced. 'What the hell do you want?'
'To talk. Nothin' wrong with old friends talkin' is there?'
The sheriff tried to sit up but his head was pounding. An oil lamp was going in the corner. Darkness was pressed up against the little window. God, how long had he been out? Hours? Last thing he remembered was some run in with that Longtree fellow.
'What do you want to talk about?' Lauters grumbled.
Mayhew looked very solemn, scared almost. 'About the murders.'
'Ain't nothing new to say.'
'There's been seven killings, Sheriff. Seven killings.'
Lauters rubbed his eyes. 'I'm aware of that.'
'Those men-'
'I know.'
'There's only three of us left,' Mayhew said desperately.
'Keep your voice down.'
Mayhew was trembling. 'That thing won't stop till we're all dead.'
'That's enough, Dewey.'
'Tonight it'll come for me or you or-'
'Enough,' the sheriff said with an edge to his voice. 'You just keep quiet about things. If you don't, I'll kill you myself.'
5
Longtree rode into the hills with only the vaguest of directions from Deputy Bowes as where to find the nearest of the Blackfeet encampments. The wind had died down from what it was earlier in the day and the temperature was above freezing. Longtree'd experienced things like that before in Montana and Wyoming. Blizzards and freezing winds followed by a brief warming trend, a thaw that would turn everything to slush and then to ice a week later when the temperature took another dive below freezing.
The country above Wolf Creek in the foothills of the Tobacco Roots was beautiful. Brush and scrubby cedar on open slopes gave way to snowy peaks, twisted deadfalls, and thick stands of pine and spruce. The mountains were huge and jutting above the timberline, barren and majestic.
But dangerous.
This whole country was like that. It was almost a religious experience viewing it, but the reality was sobering. This was a place of sudden landslides. Blizzards that kicked up with no warning. Frozen winds that seemed to rise up out of nowhere. Starving wolf packs. Marauding grizzlies that were anxious to pack extra meat and fat in their bellies before hibernation. It was also the home of the Blackfeet Indians, considered by some to be the most bloodthirsty nation on the upper Missouri.
Coming up over a ridge, Longtree saw the camp. Knowing they'd probably seen him coming for some time.
6
Longtree rode unmolested into the Blackfeet camp, accompanied by barking dogs.
There were about twelve buffalo skin lodges, most painted with geometric designs and huge, larger than life representations of birds and animals. A few weathered faces poked out of the flaps of tipis and withdrew at what they saw. Around twenty people were formed up in a camp circle around a vast blazing fire.
Longtree dismounted and tethered his horse to a pine. He approached the band cautiously, making it known he was no threat.
The Indians seemed intent on ignoring his very presence.
The men remained seated, dressed in buffalo hide caps with earflaps and buffalo robes with the fur next to their bodies. A few wore hooded Hudson Bay blanket coats and heavy moccasins. The women were dressed pretty much the same in robes and trade blankets covering their undecorated dresses. Babies poked out of the furry folds of their robes. A few women were nursing older children.
Longtree tried to communicate with a few via sign language and a bastard form of Blackfeet Algonkian he'd learned many years before.
No one paid any attention.
Finally, a young woman in a knee-length buffalo coat and black buffalo hide moccasins approached him, stopping a few feet away. She was beautiful in a wild, savage sort of way. Her eyes were huge brown liquid pools, the cheekbones high, the lips full, the skin lustrous. She had a raw, unbridled sexuality about her that you rarely saw in white women. And she had the look about her that told Longtree very clearly that she was tough as any man.
'I am Laughing Moonwind, daughter of Herbert Crazytail. What do you want here?' she asked in perfect English.
Longtree cleared his throat. 'I need help. I wish to speak with the tribal chief.'
Longtree knew that, this being a small group, it would have only one chief. Larger tribes had several, but only one was considered the acting chief and his position was really that of a chairman of the tribal council. Many whites thought the chief was something of an executive officer in the tribe, but this wasn't so. His rank was of little importance save during the summer encampment. The Blackfeet were very democratic and most major decisions were reached by the tribal council acting with the chief. Most chiefs were the leaders of the hunting bands, the basic political unit of Blackfeet culture.
'Who are you?' she asked.
'Joe Longtree. I'm a federal marshal.'
'I will ask Herbert Crazytail if he will speak with you.'
