“Jordy, what happened to Grandpa Jack? Will he be all right?” she asked.
Jordy started and turned, “Sierra, I didn’t see you. Of course, I can’t see anybody in this dang dust storm you set off. Jack took a hit in his thigh. I’m rewrapping it now, trying to keep the bleeding staunched. But he’s got a slug we ought to get out as soon as we leave this hellhole.”
“Grandpa Jack,” she yelled. “Say something.”
“Howdy, Sierra. I’ll be fine. I’m counting on you to do some doctoring on me and Thor when we get to camp. I don’t know what fixing Swede needs. Tige has been working on him.”
Grandpa Jack seemed in good spirits and a long way from dead, so she moved along the side of the wagon to check on Swede. “Tige,” she asked, “how is Swede?”
Tige scooted closer to the sideboard. “Hi, Sierra. It would take more than a bullet to take this guy down. He says he’s ready to get back to work. He got hit near the top of his shoulder. The slug passed through. I’d like to have you look and see what you think, if you wouldn’t mind. I claimed four bottles of whiskey from our cargo, and I’ve washed the entry and exit with that.”
“I’ll fetch my vet kit from my saddlebags and hop in the wagon.”
After she retrieved her kit, Sierra climbed into the wagon and knelt beside Tige. “I can’t see much until the dust settles. It shouldn’t be long before we can see the sun again. You’ve got the bleeding staunched it appears.” The filthy rag that was pressed against the front of Swede’s shoulder appeared to have everything but blood on it, but she admitted she would be hard-pressed to produce anything clean from her belongings after this many days on the trail.
She looked at Swede, who appeared quite stoic about his injury. “Are you in much pain?”
“Hurt? Nej.”
She took that to mean “No.”
Tige said, “He’s drunk a half pint of whiskey. You could operate now if you needed to open him up, and he wouldn’t feel a thing.”
Sierra pulled back the compress that covered the shoulder wound, thinking she had never seen muscles like Swede’s even on Jordy’s stallion. “No terrible damage that I can see, but we will want to clean it when the light’s better. I don’t know about stitches. Can you help me get him on his side, so I can see the exit?”
Tige helped her push the giant on his side. Swede did not resist but did not help either. He did burst out in some unintelligible song, however.
Sierra removed the crude compress on the exit wound which was stuck by its own blood and fluids. “There is some tearing here. Might want a few stitches. We’ll just have to look again when we get settled someplace.” She returned the compress to the shoulder, using a bit of her surgical tape, careful not to waste it since it was hard to come by.
She crawled to the other end of the wagon bed, bumping her head on a huge gun that had been installed on the floor. Now she knew where all the racket had been coming from. She moved up beside Jordy. “Is there anything I can do now?”
“Jack’s sleeping again. He does that off and on. Sleeps for ten minutes, awake for ten minutes. We’ve got to get ready to move out. We’ve recruited three new hands from the Comancheros. One has a Comanche wife. I was thinking we would move you and Jack into the other wagon, and the woman will ride with you. She might be less afraid if she was with another woman.”
“Does she speak any English?”
“I have no idea. Her name’s Songbird.”
“What about Swede?” Sierra asked.
Tige said, “I’ll be mounted near the wagon and keep an eye on him. In his state, I’d say he will enjoy the company of his bottle and the Gatling gun as much as anybody’s.”
Chapter Forty-Two
The wagons pulled in at the chuckwagon camp more than an hour after the wranglers had arrived with the horse herd. It was midafternoon, and, as far as Jordy was concerned, the priority was removal of the slug from Jack’s thigh. He did not check with Jack. They would stay the night here. It seemed everybody assumed he had authority to make decisions, and it had not occurred to him that he might not.
She Who Speaks came to him as he was unsaddling his horse. “I understand Mister Wills was injured during the fight at the compound.”
“Yes. A slug must be removed from his thigh. Swede took a bullet in the shoulder, too, but it passed through.”
“I have medicines prepared by Healer’s Daughter that can be used in poultices.”
“Talk with Sierra. She is with Jack at the wagon. I know she will welcome help. She needs to get this done during sunlight.”
“I will find her. Kwahadi warriors will share night watch on the herd. Tell Throws Lance how many men you want and when.”
“And I’m sorry about the loss of your warrior,” Jordy said as she started to walk away.
She Who Speaks said, “Tall Tree was a good warrior, a kind man, but war does not pick its casualties for their character or lack of it. I am sad that we will be forced to bury him at this place, yet, it is nearer the homelands of The People than the reservation that is their destination.”
Jordy sought out Rudy who was already organizing for supper, poor Nick Iverson having been pressed into domestic duties with Bram by reason of his mere presence. Jordy had no thought of interceding lest he find himself washing pots and pans.
