There were no happier Indians alive than Running Horse and me. As the days passed, life in the village was very good. There were hunts and feasts. Our elders died and children were born. The great circle of life came and went as days passed without much notice of the passing. We lived as the Pawnee lived for as far back as time went, and life was good.

Running Horse and I took the time to watch a sunrise now and then. We were often outside as the stars twinkled to life and blinked out after a hard night of keeping the universe lit without assistance from the sun, but each morning the sun took over to warm the day and us as grass grew and the wind blew.

The spring rains came and went and the summer heat kept us inside at mid day, unless we went to the lake to swim, which was a popular way of cooling off as we waited for the usual evening breeze to help us sleep.

Some evenings were spent in the field on a blanket where we watched such things as the moon and stars when we thought of it.

John and Barnaby went back to John's horse ranch to settle in and live the life of country gentlemen who raised fine horses. Sammy Boy stayed and took John's lodge. Big Joe had the other lodge. He stayed too, more convinced than ever that he was more comfortable with the Pawnee than he ever was with soldiers.

I think he thought he could make a difference by staying with the Pawnee. Who was I to argue with Big Joe? When you owe a man your life, you give him a lot of latitude. Big Joe had been a slave and a buffalo soldier. He wanted to try his hand at being Big Joe.

We didn't go in search of trouble. We knew we'd find it when it showed up. It came as no surprise when we were told, 'It's your time to die.'

I might have put less stock in such a message, but this messenger had my ear, once I figured out who he was.

The messenger was quite unexpected, and he rode in from the west. He actually didn't have far to ride, because his mission was to watch our village, and report back to the fort where 600 men were gathered to attack us.

You might want to know who would ride into an Indian village with that warning? I wanted to know. I knew the voice, but I couldn't place it. He did the old cavalry trick of waiting for the sun to be shining over his shoulder when he stopped for a chat.

All I could see was the sun.

He wanted me to be surprised by who he was. It did come as a surprise.

"I thought it was you," the rider said. "I always knew you'd come back."

I knew he was cavalry because of the yellow stripe on his leg. The sun made it impossible to see his face. I thought of the day I met Custer. Was this his ghost?

I strained my eyes trying to see who it was. I knew that voice, but I didn't know from where, and then his horse moved a step to the right, and I saw the red beard and red hair.

"Riggs!"

"You know me too. You gave me my life once, Tall Willow. Now, I'm going to give you yours. There is a planned attack on this village. It will come later this week. We have two hundred reinforcements to do the job. There will be six hundred cavalry men who ride down on you later this week. Don't leave anyone alive is the order."

"Why tell us this?" Running Horse asked. "You are cavalry."

"I thought Tall Willow had finally returned. I always watch this village when they ask for a volunteer. What I saw Tall Willow do with a bow all those years ago has never left my mind. He stood in the face of certain death, shooting that traitor Indian and Major Meeks to boot."

"You let me get away. You said you'd slow them down, until it was close to dark, and they'd never ride out after me in the dark. You made my getaway possible. You owe me nothing"

"You don't understand, do you? You're the most courageous man I've ever known. I could never participate in your destruction. Hell, I've been leaving the cavalry for ten years, but I ain't got nowheres to go. I wish I had your courage, Tall Willow. White men don't have your kind of courage. You made up your mind what you'd do, and you did it. Once you did, you stood proud and tall, waiting to die. I think you thought you missed those shots. Things were moving so fast, it took a second for you to realize you didn't miss. You got them both. I never saw anything like it. I had to help you."

"Walk with us to our lodge," Running Horse said.

The coffee I fixed that morning was still warm. There was enough for all of us to have a cup. Riggs sat with his back to the door, facing Running Horse across the fire. I sat to the right of Running Horse as I faced Riggs.

"Why is a cavalry man telling a Pawnee chief these things? Why am I believing you?"

"Had I not seen Tall Willow, I wouldn't have come in. I've seen him several times. I thought about him being Tall Willow. Once I saw you holding hands, I was convinced. I knew him for a few hours one day. Those were not ordinary hours in my life. I would never forget what I saw you do."

"The last cavalry man who sat across the fire from me was Major Meeks."

Riggs laughed.

"He was an ambitious and arrogant man. I almost left the cavalry after he took command. He was not well liked, but ambitious men rarely are. I had no place to go. I'm Irish, not exactly a walk in the park for us in this country, you know?"

"I know," Running Horse said, knowing about being made to feel unwanted.

Samuel came in as we sat around the fire.

"Who's he?" Samuel asked, immediately honing in on Riggs.

Samuel was in his deerskin shirt and leggings. He had the eagle feathers weaved into his long blond hair. He was forever looking more Pawnee than any of us, but there was the very blond hair to distort the image, and the white skin other worldly.

He even shocked me at times. Samuel had stayed when John first went back to his horse ranch a few months before. Barnaby had stayed with John, Samuel with us.

"Sammy Boy, go get Big Joe?" I asked.

"I really did want to make an afternoon of this. Do we need to advertise that fact I came in to warn you?"

"You'll like Big Joe. I want him to hear you. I want to see both of you," I said, not sure what I was looking for, but I did want to see Riggs' reaction to the army shirt Big Joe wore.

Samuel ducked back out of the lodge and it was only a few minutes before Big Joe came. He was wearing one of his army shirts, as usual.

"You wanted me, Phillip," Big Joe said, coming just inside the lodge to stand.

"Sit with us," I said. "I'll make more coffee.

Riggs was standing and extended his hand to Big Joe

"Buffalo Soldier?" Riggs asked, seeing the absent insignia on Joe's shirt.

"Yes," Big Joe said, looking suspiciously at the soldier here before his arrival.

"This is an old… friend," I said. "I wanted you to sit with us. Come sit," I said.

"Now that you are drinking my coffee, why am I believing you?"

"What reason do I have to lie? I've told you all I know. I'm to report back today, and a date and time will be set for the attack on your village. You have sixty, seventy people, a dozen warriors, and we will ride in with six hundred soldiers. No one will survive our attack. The orders are, any Indian not on a reservation are to be subdued. That means killed. You have at most a week to live, or you could run for it. I hope you'll try to get away."

"If our death is assured, why show my heels to our enemy? We have the repeating rifles. We'll fight for our home. We will die, but so will a lot of you."

"You'll die, Chief."

"We all die. Few pick the time to die. It picks us."

The blunt words made the lodge quiet for a few minutes as we pondered them.

Samuel was not a boy who wasted his time listening to other men talk. He stayed near the door, ready to duck out into the fresh air. He stayed put, listening to words that had to make him remember is own brush with death. We didn't pick that time or the place. It was thrust upon us.

What an odd group of men we were. An Indian chief and his lover. A white Pawnee brave. A black slave, an Irish man, and the truth that spoke of the hour we would die. Big Joe and Samuel could ride away from the village, without a second thought, but they wouldn't. We would all stand our ground, and the cavalry would come.

There would need to be a meeting. Chief Running Horse would advise his people. Riggs would be gone, back to the fort report what he decided to tell them. Notifying us of the attack meant more of them would die, because we would be ready. That was on Riggs.

This was his decision. He owed me nothing. He saved my life and set me on the path I went down. I had come back and he did recognize me. I would have bet against it. Meeks men saw me at Running Horse's side when they came to the village, but none would remember this Tall Willow as the one they saw, and how many soldiers who came here were still at the fort. Riggs simply had nowhere else to go, and so he stayed.

What would we do? Where would we go?

"What does Riggs say when he returns to his fort?"

"I'm tired of the dying, Chief. I will tell them nothing has changed. I don't want any of my friends to die. I don't want you to die, Chief. If I know anyone who deserves to live, it's Tall Willow. I came to you to avoid any death, but that means you need to run. You need to run soon. I would be shot if they knew I was sitting your lodge saying this. Help me, Chief."

"Paradise," Big John said.

"Paradise Valley. I have a place, Running Horse. I told you about Paradise Valley. It's a safe place. Safe for a while. It would take them time to figure out where we are."

"To save your people. You've been safe here. Find another place. It will take time to locate you again. Go into the hills. Anything but sitting here waiting to die. You could come in, you know?" The reservation will offer you a sanctuary. It's better than dying."

"Is it?" Running Horse asked.

"Not if you're determined to keep your way of life, but it will end soon. Your way of life has passed, Chief. I wish I could do more. I wish I could save you. I'm one man. The cavalry is many men, and they're determined to kill you and your people."

"Your reservations are a prison and our tomb," Running Horse said. "We will fight."

The bluntness in his words left the lodge silent.

"Riggs, you are free to return to your fort. This meeting Is over."

"What can I do to convince you, Chief?"

"You stand on both sides of a war that has gone on for a long time. Wars end. You stand with the cavalry. We have nothing left to say."

Riggs' horse was a few feet from the opening into the lodge. He hadn't moved five steps away from where Riggs left him, reins lying on the ground told him to stay there.

Riggs turned to face me.

"I came in for you. You don't need to die, Tall Willow. Ride away."

Samuel moved up on one side of me. Big Joe stood on the other. Riggs looked at each one of us, but he spoke to me.

"Save yourself," Riggs said.

"You are a good man with a good heart, Riggs. If it's my time to die, It's my time. I will stand beside Running Horse. If he says we are going to fight, we will fight."

"We'll all fight you," Samuel said.

Riggs walked his horse a few dozen feet away before he mounted and rode away.

"That's a good man, Phillip," Big Joe said. "I know what he feels."

"Tall Willow, now, Big Joe."

"I know that. Don't know what I was thinking. Seeing Riggs set me back a little."

"It's why I wanted you to hear him out. What made you think of Paradise Valley. I should have thought of it. I told Running Horse about it. We were going to ride there in a few weeks. Now we may need to run for our lives."

"You don't mind if I tag along, do you?" Big Joe asked.

"You're one of us now, Joe. You're welcome to join us. Running Horse needs time to consider what he wants to do. I'll let you know when he lets me know."

"That's a complicated Indian you have there, Tall Willow," Big Joe told me. "Do you see his mind working as he talks?"

I laughed.

"I hear it working sometimes," I said. "He says a chief knows much."

"He's like an officer in the cavalry. Responsible for many lives," Big Joe said.

"Don't tell him that. He might want to give us orders."

"Paradise Valley is the answer," I said.

"We get in there, I can fix it so no one can get to us."

"Both Young Antelope and Big Bear came over from where they watched the cavalry man come and go from the village.

"What's up with the cavalry, Tall Willow?" Young Antelope asked.

"Go see Running Horse. He'll call a council for tonight. He'll tell you. All the warriors in camp?" I asked

"We're all here. We were going to hunt, but we're all here."

Tell them Running Horse's message first," I told him. "We'll need to stay close."

I let Running Horse send his message to the rest of the village.

The first thing was to get ready to move. Running Horse wasn't going to sacrifice the village without making a bold move to save it. If he was smart, and he was smart, he'd be working on a plan to out fox the cavalry, and maybe get us to safety while he does it.

"Why does a cavalry man come into my village and try to save my life?"

"He saved my life, remember. He's a good man. He is living the life he found. It's not much of a life. He longs for more but remembers the Irish do not fair all that well. The cavalry is what he knows. He no longer likes what it is doing," I told him.

"I will speak tonight. You will sit at my right hand. It's as it should be. I will only speak of the attack tonight. See how my people react. I was not going to tell Riggs what I am going to do. He is cavalry. We'll go to the valley you call Paradise. It is a three day ride?"

"With the wagon, going most of the time, three days."

"We have elders and the young who do not ride."

"All fit in my wagon. Won't even need to move the goods. The sacks are fine seats."

"Fifteen elders. Some men might want to ride. Fifteen fit in wagon?"

"They need to sit close, but I'll make them fit."

"I need a diversion. We will seek to lead them off to the east. Make them think we go toward our old village. We'll go south first, then west. If we can keep them off of us for a day, we might make it to your valley before they catch us. We need them to take our bait. If they don't, we'll have a fight on our hands."

I knew it was risky. If they caught us on the trail, there would be no cover and they'd finish us off in an hour or two. Men with repeating rifles and on horse back might hold them off for a while, but there's no way we could win a fight with soldiers who are trained to kill.

The people came and the somberness meant they all knew a cavalry man came and spent time in Running Horse's lodge. When a cavalry man comes to the village, it's never good, and the people were about to find out how bad it was.

It was about as bad as it could get. Running Horse had spoken of the what. He had yet to speak of how we would escape to live a while longer. He would not willingly take his people in the reservation. There were too many stories of starvation and freezing to death. This would not be how his people ended their lives.

"You are Chief. What are we to do?" Iron Hand asked.

"I am your chief. I have just learned of what is to come. I'll have a plan in time for us to go, and hopefully keep ahead of the cavalry."

"Tall Willow will speak of a place he knows. It's a place where we would be safe, until they find us again, and then there will be no soldiers to come and tell us they are coming for us at weeks end. Tall Willow."

"I call it Paradise Valley. It's behind some canyon walls. We would be safe if we stay there and don't wander around and lead someone to us. It has game, fish, a waterfall and a pond where we bathe. I think it would support all of us, but to stay safe, we'd need to stay put. Once we are there, we'll need to stay there. That'll will be hard on the warriors, but they'll be alive and it's a beautiful place to live," I said. "Plenty of game to hunt."

"That means we'll get up one morning, leave our lodges as they are, after we are ready to go, and we will ride into a new life. No one who doesn't want to go must go. You decide, but your chief thinks it is our only option. The word is out, any Indian not on a reservation is to be shot. Our land is no longer ours. It belongs to white men now. We are no longer welcome here. We will move to the valley Tall Willow speaks of."

"They'll find us no matter where we go," Barking Dog said.

"The valley is secure for now. One day, they might find us, but before I came here, we lived most of a year in Paradise Valley. No one discovered us. It's hard to explain. There is one way in and one way out. It's a tight canyon that leads to the valley."

"I'm not so much in favor of staying here to die," Young Antelope said. "Running Horse led us here many years ago. We will let him lead us to our new home."

Everyone nodded.

Not many would volunteer to stand in front of a charging army.

"We'll take our weapons and what goods we can carry. We'll get up, leave our fires burning, and we'll ride away with nothing but our future in hand," Running Horse said.

Running wasn't much of a solution to a problem, but there is a time to fight and a time to run. We would run, and if we were swift enough, we'd stay alive for a little longer. Odds were, once the cavalry knew we were running, they'd spread out to catch us. They had hundreds of men, and we were but a few Pawnees, but being so, we just might slip away while they chased ghosts Running Horse prepared to fool them.

I was just outside of our lodge when I saw Riggs coming. He looked different. He said we wouldn't see him again, but he was back. As he rode his horse to where I stood, I immediately saw his uniform looked like Big Joe's uniform now.

There were no markings on the shirt and the yellow stripe was gone from his pants.

"You're back," I said.

"I'm back. If you get me killed, I hope you know our friendship is over," Riggs told me.

Hearing the voices, Running Horse came out.

"You are here to spy and tell the army what we do?"

"Do I look like I'm going to tell anyone anything?"

"I do not know what a soldier will do. You ride to my village. Why?"

"Death, Chief. I've seen enough of it. I won't fight the cavalry. I won't kill my friends, white or Indian. I'll help you move. I'll help you cover your trail. If we're lucking, those Indian scouts won't be able to follow us. I know how they track things. I know how to fool them. You need me, and I've done enough killing. I want to do some life saving for a change."

"No one can stand on both sides of a fight."

"I only stand on one side now, Chief. I stand with you. I want to help your people to stay alive. If there Is a fight, you can't win, but you can escape, and avoid the fight."

"How do you know we run?"

Climbing off his horse, the redhead looked Running Horse in the eye.

"It's what a good leader will do. I know, you're such a leader. I want to help."

"Come in lodge. We talk, Riggs. I am trusting you."

Riggs had made a similar decision to the one Big Joe made. The Indians never had a chance and the cavalry was like the rest of white people, they kept coming. They would keep on coming, until we were all dead.

"How much time?"

"In three days, the cavalry will come to within five miles. They camp in the forest five miles out. They'll get up at dawn on the morning of the fourth day, and they will ride to the village and destroy it and everyone in it. I told them there was no sign that anyone suspected the attack, and I waited for everyone to go to sleep, after I learned the plan for the attack. I came here."

Riggs knew the day and hour of our death, and it took a bit of getting comfortable with the idea. We wouldn't volunteer to die. We would run for our lives. We would go to Paradise Valley, if we made it that far before they caught up with us.

No one spoke for a long time.

"How many horses do we have?" Running Horse asked me.

"Forty-five in the pasture. They aren't all broken. Young Antelope has been bringing mustangs in a few at a time. He wants more riding horses in our stock," I said.

"Go get Young Antelope," Running Horse told me. Tell him to bring Big Bear."

I didn't want to leave our lodge. What was said while I was out, I'll never know, and Running Horse never spoke of it. I never asked him about it. He took Riggs' warnings to be true. There was no reason to lie. Had he remained silent, they'd have ridden in and wiped us out on the morning of the fourth day.

On the morning of the fourth day, we would be gone.

Young Antelope stood just inside the lodge looking at the uniform Riggs had on. Everyone in the village knew Big Joe and his uniform looked the same way.

"How many horses are in the meadows. How many more can you get me?"

"You want to do this with the ears of the cavalry listening? What are you thinking?"

"We only know what we know because Riggs told us. He offers to help us. You have so many warriors you do not need help, Young Antelope?"

"I don't like it. What am I to do?" he asked, watching Riggs. "Forty-three in the pasture. There's a herd of mustangs who come to the river near the canyons to drink. I've been taking a few of them at a time. They make good riding horses. The elders and the small children can't ride. We have more than enough."

"I can take the elders and children in the wagon. Thay aren't the reason we want as many horses as we can get. The goods can stay on the floor and they can sit on them," I said. It's three days to Paradise Valley, before any diversions come into play. It's a long time to be in the wagon, but we can stop to let them stretch their legs."

"Get me all the horses you can. How many is that?"

"Forty-three. Twenty-five or twenty-six mustangs. If I can get them all, sixty-five to seventy in all," Young Antelope said.

"Do it. Make sure you can keep the mustangs in with our horses. That way they'll be together when we move them. Better chance of keeping them under control. Go and spend some time making sure they'll stay together. Get Big Bear and Barking Dog to help you move them around in the meadow. Keep them together this afternoon. See if they stay together once you leave them to graze. Come tell me it is done."

Young Antelope left the lodge as Running Horse watched Riggs.

"What is it?" Riggs asked.

"A smart leader might want to send a man into the enemy camp to find out what they will do once they know an attack is coming."

"I don't need to know your plan. I can be court martialed for taking the insignia off my uniform. They'd send me in civies if I was a spy, Chief. No sane cavalry man is going to come to join the Indians his company is about to attack. The only way I get out of this alive, is if you get out of it alive. They see me with you, and they'll put me in front of a firing squad. I will not fight my friends. I am good with horses, as most cavalry men are. Between me and Big Joe, you have two men trained to handle horses in a herd. You don't need to tell us your plan to give us directions," Riggs said with no hesitation in his words.

He had a lot of time to think about how he could be the most useful.

"We trust him and we have a valuable advisor. We don't trust him, and we're screwed," I said.

"This has occurred to me. I will trust he is sane and not a spy. My plan depends on horses, as you've heard. I'm not sure how to best use them, but if we have enough to confuse our trail away from the village, we might throw them off long enough to get away."

"Exactly how I would do it if I was making the plan," Riggs said. "I know the scouts. I watch them work. The officers pay no attention to them, until they are ready to report what it is they have found."

"What this civies?" Running Horse decided he wanted to know.

"Street clothes. Like anyone might wear," Riggs explained.

Running Horse nodded.

"If you plan to use horses to cover your tracks, Big Joe and me can do that. We know what the scouts are looking for and we can make sure they don't find it. The Arikara and Crow can be frustrated. Won't admit losing a trail. If we can divert the scouts. We divert the cavalry. Might give us an hour or two here or there. Could make the difference," Riggs observed. "They think you are using delaying tactics. They're going to split into companies. Once they do that, your time will be running out. Once they know the general direction you are taking, they'll send squads off in all directions to locate you. If we have gotten far enough ahead of them, we might reach where we are going."

"If I am going east, then south, then turn to the west to get where we are going, does that give us a chance to stay ahead of them? Or is a waste of valuable time."

"I can answer that question after we try the diversion. We'll stay around to see if they take the bait or not. If they take the bait, once you are going south, you'll need to keep them going south when you turn west. That will be harder, once they realize going east was a decoy to keep them off you. That means they'll be waiting for another such diversion. That makes it difficult to fool them a second time."

"It we go east. Can you make it look like we keep going east, once we go south."

"With sixty horses, Chief, we can mask your trail south, but they're going to figure it out eventually. Hard to say how far the entire brigade will get before splitting up. Once they know you have gotten away, they'll take counter measures."

"What this countermeasure ."

"They'll back track to see where they lost you, sending squads in all directions to report back with what they find."

"They find our trail?"

"A force that size might fall for it for a few hours. Until they pick up your trail, they're not going to know which way to go. It's the main force that will conduct the attack. Squads aren't going to get close enough to let you see them. A company of men, can't say. If they're bold enough, they might attack you in the hopes the rest of the brigade will be coming to their aid soon. They'll figure, if they found you, the rest of the brigade won't be far behind."

"Knowing what scouts are looking for makes us a better choice for that duty. You can make your escape without us knowing where you'll be. We'll know where the diversion took place, which means once we see what the cavalry does, we'll catch up with you."

"You earn keep. Good idea. Tall Willow, Bring Joe. We talk. Riggs and Joe will drive horses to cover tracks. Young Antelope and Big Bear will assist Riggs and Joe. Once we turn west, how far to trail we are going to?"

"With the wagon, half a day, and then a half a day once we go south. Maybe not quite a half day. I haven't gone that far north on the North/South trail out of Denver. I'm only guessing, but the trail is straight and smooth, and if need be, we can run the horses for all they are worth once on it."

I went to get Big Joe and Samuel tagged along behind us.

Running Horse explained what the horses were for. He told of the plan to leave the village the next morning and take nothing with us. We would just vanish in thin air.

"Maybe. Maybe not," Running Horse said.

Before dawn, the elders who could no longer sit a horse got into the back of my wagon with kids too young to ride. I was directed to go east in the direction of Kansas. We were two days north and a day east of Paradise Valley, our destination.

We had a substantial rain two days before, this being the rainy season. Forty-five people on horseback, followed the wagon, which included Samuel, Big Joe, and Riggs.

The remainder of the horses fell in behind the village people on horseback. That included me and Running Horse and the warriors, which now numbered seventeen.

The river before we reached canyon country, was running high, but low enough to make the crossing. Everyone sat tight as I took the wagon across. With Dobbin walking behind the wagon, I rode him back across the river to where Running Horse had the extra horses stopped.

"Drive the rest of the horses east to the canyons," Running Horse said.

Young Antelope, Big Bear, Riggs, Big Joe, and Samuel sat listening.

Drive them through the canyons. It's rock and shale. At the far end of the canyon, turn south. Keep the horses up against the cliffs so they're on the rock. Double back and cross the river where we crossed. Spend time enough to remove our tracks, and to confuse scouts, if they check the far side of the river once they lose the trail, they might cross the river. They might not. The ground is so soft, you can't tell which tracks were made when."

Everyone listened carefully as the plan unfolded.

Run the horses back and forth once you reach the spot where we crossed. Give them a few miles to the east and pick a nice spot to backtrack and follow the rest of us.

"Might not fool them for long. Could fool long enough. I want to slow them down."

"Might work," Riggs said. "That's why all the horses. Damn clever of you. The scouts do get frustrated easy enough."

"It could buy us the time we need," I said, and we left to cross the river.

It was the following morning that the men and the extra horses caught up with us. We were not exactly burning the trail up, and they moved the horses right along. The faster they moved, the more distorted the prints the horses make.

We continued south for most of the day, and just before we made camp, we turned west along a gravel and solid stream bed that was running fairly full. As we reached that rocky surface, the extra horses were driven further south as we turned west to get back to the trail and Paradise Valley that was less than a day away.

Young Antelope rode in about noon, and he jumped from the horse to run to Running Horse.

"They follow wrong trail, back track, spend time figuring out which way we went. They're riding south now. If they take the second phony trail, it will be tomorrow before they can catch us."

Running Horse smiled. He nodded at me and we continued going to the main North/South trail that would pass the entrance to Paradise Valley.

"Let's not stop. Keep moving. I know it's hard on your passengers, but they aren't likely to take the bait as easy the second time. If they see through it too soon, they could be on us later today. We need to go. Running Horse rode back to tell me.

We went.

It was easier going the closer to the trail we got, and it wasn't that late in the afternoon, when we saw the extra horses and our horse handlers joining our parade. Riggs rode up and swung into the seat beside me. I didn't like that Samuel went with him, but now Riggs was back and so was Samuel who rode up beside Running Horse once Riggs was on the seat next to me.

"They didn't take the second diversion. They're coming and they're coming fast. We can't be more than an hour ahead of them. You might want to get this buggy moving."

I clicked my tongue and the horses began to move faster, as Running Horse, Young Antelope lead the way. Big Joe rode beside the wagon and the warriors and extra horses came behind us, and the race for safety was on.

An hour down the road, Running Horse and the riders ahead of us stopped.

"How far?" Running Horse wanted to know.

"An hour more or less," I said, not having gone that far but one time.

I couldn't be sure how far it was, and Big Joe got Moses into gear and he galloped down the trail toward Paradise Valley. Running Horse, Young Antelope, and Samuel took off after him, and I clicked my tongue to get my horses running.

After little more than an hour, Running Horse sat with his horse across the trail.

"Rest your horses for a few minutes. We'll go as hard as we need to go. If they catch us, I'll pick a spot we can defend for a while. It'll be dark in a few hours, if we hold them off until dark, some of us might escape them."

A few minutes later we were moving faster than we had gone. Riggs got back on his horse when we stopped, and Samuel took the seat beside me. He was sweating even though the day wasn't that warm, and his face was caked with dust that the sweat left marks that interrupted the dirt.

I smiled. Clicked my tongue, and we were off.

We were close to Paradise Valley. I recognize this part of the trail. We were almost there. I had no idea where the cavalry was.

"You think we'll make it, Pop." Samuel yelled over the noise the horses made.

"We'll make it. No sweat," I said, and Sammy Boy laughed.

He knew I didn't know if we would or we wouldn't, but we were going to give it one hell of a shot. Sammy Boy was taking it with me.

It was a while later that Young Antelope was catching up with us and passing the wagon to get to Running Horse.

I climbed down to run to hear the report.

"Five six miles behind. Coming fast. They know they have us right in front of them. Scouts had ridden back to report it to the commanding officer, while I watched them from a grove of trees east of the trail."

I thought young Antelope was ahead of us, but some how he had dropped back to watch for the cavalry. Both Riggs and Big Joe were gone.

I yelled, "Ten minutes. We're right on top of it. Let's go."

Running Horse signaled for us to get going, and we got gone.

"No fight," I yelled. "It's just ahead. Ten minutes," I said, thinking it would take ten minutes for them to catch us and probably longer. I knew we weren't that far away.

Once again we were off and running. The horses were tired. I was tired, but we kept going. It was Big Joe who pointed to the boulders that blocked the entrance to the valley.

Running Horse and those in front of us pulled up. I drove the wagon up between the boulders, and into the canyon. I couldn't go very fast, but everyone was pulling in behind us, including the extra horses that flowed out into the pastures once they reached the valley.

I pulled the wagon up to make room for the horses and riders to go down into the valley. I turned the team to the left and when I was on the bottom, I saw Big Joe climbing the cliff with Riggs and Sammy Boy right behind him.

The warriors all scattered around the exit of the canyon with their repeating rifles. The elders and children got out near the fire pit, and everyone else just stood in place listening to what sounded like gunfire.

It couldn't be gunfire. They weren't in sight when we came into the canyon. They couldn't have seen where we went.

The sky became darker as the thunder rolled. It was thunder.

No one moved. No one spoke. I held my breath.

There was an ever so slight rainfall that splattered my hair and wet my face.

Samuel appeared at the top of the inside cliff.

Two three miles back. Scouts are checking our tracks. They dismounted, but they'll be on us. We didn't have time to hide our trail," Joe says. "We're sitting ducks.".

I hoped above hope it might take a little longer to catch us. I hoped we could at least distort the trail that led straight to the canyon and Paradise Valley. In ten more minutes we could have covered our tracks and it would have taken months for them to find where we went to. Now, they were right on top of us. They could come two miles in five minutes.

We might kill a lot of soldiers, but we were all going to die in spite of our mad dash for Paradise.

We made it to Paradise, and we were going to die here.

I wondered if I owned it after all this time. I had been back from St Louis for a year.

I laughed. I'm about to die and I'm worrying about who owns they land where my people are going to die.

We gave it one hell of a shot. I reached for the double barrel and the repeating rifle I put under my seat. I started to climb up beside the warriors spread out among the rocks.

I felt the rain picking up. It was a regular downpour. The wind blew and the rain came in torrents. It rained harder than I'd seen it in years.

It was absolutely pouring rain.

The thunder rolled and the rain fell. I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. It rained so hard, and it kept raining. The water was starting to cover my feet as I looked down to see how the pouring rain was covering everything.

Riggs appeared at the top of the cliff. We heard him but we couldn't see him for the rain that was pouring even harder than before.

"Stopped a mile up the trail. Got off their horses. I can't see them. It's raining too hard. The water is covering the trail. The water is covering everything. Never saw it rain harder."

I looked at the puddles forming at my feet as the rains kept coming.

I began to laugh.

Running Horse looked at me like I was crazy, but a light came into his eyes.

He began laughing.

Big Joe, Rigggs, and Samuel climbed down off the cliff, and they were laughing. Everyone there began to catch on to what was so funny, and they laughed.

The thunder rolled, the rain fell, and for two hours we stood in the most glorious rain we'd ever seen.

Once the sky began to clear of the blackness that made it almost dark outside, Big Joe and Riggs went back up on the cliff.

A few minutes later, Riggs came back to the edge of the cliff.

"Water as far as the eye can see. No cavalry in sight. They turned back," he said.

Running Horse came to me and we hugged.

"We made it."

The cavalry had orders to get us, and they weren't going to give up because of a little rain, but they had gone back to the fort to dry out and regroup.

They'd take up the hunt another day, but the rain washed out any signs Indian scouts could follow. They would need to start the search over, but they knew where they lost us, and that's where they would begin looking for where the Pawnee got to.

We weren't out of the woods. We knew we lived on borrowed time.

Riggs and a thunderstorm saved us this time, but every Indian was either going to be on a reservation or in a grave before it was all said and done, but for now we had our freedom and our lives, and we lived in Paradise. They would need to come through the narrow passageway to get at us, and we had repeating rifles.

The most curious aspect of it all, knowing what we knew, Big Joe kept carrying rocks to add to his monument. Now, Riggs joined the parade of rock haulers. Young Antelope and Barking Dog went up on the cliffs to carry rocks.

I just didn't get it.

Big Joe said, "It's a wall that will protect us."

It was a wall. They built ramps to get the rocks higher and higher. Before long, every loose rock on that cliff made the wall that kept anyone from seeing what was up there.

Only birds saw it now. There wasn't a rock on top that hadn't been added to the pile.

I knew about the Great Wall in China. Paradise Valley now had a wall in the sky.

Several camps were built on the floor of the valley. Our fire pit, the one we used, since Juan guided us to Paradise Valley, was the gathering place for feasts and meetings.

We could go out, but we didn't. The Great Spirit brought us rain, when we needed rain. It allowed us to escape from falling into the hands of the cavalry. We could have gone out to see what we could see, but we didn't.

Paradise Valley supplied us with what we needed. We would stay in the valley, but we kept a watch on the trail from behind our great wall.

The cavalry knew where we were when they last had a report on us. They would be back sooner or later to pick up where they left off, and then, all bets were off.

For now, Running Horse and I were safe to pick up where we left off, before our dash for freedom. We had our own lodge, and we made love there.

We made love at the pond below the waterfall, when we went to bathe. We made love in the forest and we celebrated each day as it arrived.

I did wonder if Paradise Valley was mine, but it was ours as long as we could hold it.

The End of Paradise & Big Joe

Friends and Readers,

I am German, English, Scots/Irish, and with my mother's mother's name Pistel, probably French, and no Scotch please, I'm trying to get straight. LOL

In spite of all of the above, what I am is gay. From as far back as my memory goes, I am gay and always have been gay.

I do not have a drop of indigenous blood. I suppose I relate to Indians who were here before America became a thing, because I too was hated every minute of every day for being. My trials and tribulations in no way speaks of cultures smothered and beaten out of our indigenous brothers and sisters, who could have given us so much knowledge about this land, but were never given the chance to speak, because they were in the way.

Indigenous children were kidnapped by our government and sent to concentration camps to be brain washed, and if the washing still left them dirty Indians, they died at the hands of priests, and so called religious folk, who were quite willing to beat the Indian out of them, and if necessary, they beat indigenous children to death. The graveyards in these so called schools are full of broken bodies of children who refused to deny their heritage.

This is our shame. We are literally the guests who came and refused to leave. We are every homeowner's night mare. What a nice house you have. Glad I discovered it. Of course, now that I have, you do know I don't entertain guests. You need to leave.

Until we the people recognize full indigenous right to the truth and their culture, we will suffer the shame that haunts us to this day. Until we do something significant to make up for our past crimes, America will remain in the shadow of its potential greatness.

To my Indigenous brothers and sisters, I apologize for any misrepresentation that I'm sure are present in these novels. I endeavored to take a man with one foot in the white world, and the other foot in the indigenous world, and try to make sense of what he sees.

No, it can't be compared with being gay, or being black for that matter. I relate to all hated people everywhere, because we share mindless hatred from people who do not realize how sick they are for believing they are the only ones who should have rights.

Unfortunately, these are the slippery folks who most often worm their way into power.

For all of us who suffer under the hands of the horror of hatred, I see you. I hear you.

I hope you hear these words and nod your head if you are among the often hated of our species. We are one. I am you. You are me.

Join me in embracing our indigenous brothers and sisters, slaves, each and every child born of two spirits. We are, We the people …

Peace & Love,

Rick Beck

Writer, queer, faggot, and lover of men and all mankind.

Stay tuned for book 5 of the Indian Chronicles.

Yes, afraid so, there is more to come.

'We're Still Here'

A Rick Beck Story from the shadows within my mind,

I lived, making too many missteps, learning from every step. I'm a work in progress, learning and writing it down in my search for the meaning in it all.

A psychologist could probably explain the words that came to me. I can't explain where I came from or how I got here. One day I was here, and a writer from early on.

One day I'll be gone, and you'll find me in the words I have written, or possibly not.

Rick Beck

*****

Rob Reiner was a mensch.

I have learned, the movie, 'Stand By Me,' was the movie Rob thought came closest to capturing his own life.

If you haven't seen 'Stand By Me,' do yourself a favor and see it.

It is summed up by its final scene. Richard Dryfuss, a writer, finishes with a story he is writing about a childhood friend, Chris Chambers, who recently died.

We go on the journey with Gordo, seeing how he remembers Chris as boys together.

He finishes. Starts to leave, hesitates, going back to the computer to write:

"I never had friends like the ones I had when I was 12 years old."

It is set in the 1950s.

A group of friends were free ranging kids. Once they popped out of the front door in the morning, parents wouldn't see them again until dinner, if then, but the parents knew that in the summer, boys had to go. It didn't matter where they went, as long as they went.

These boys investigate the disappearance of a boy they didn't know, but they heard about him on the radio. They had an idea of where they thought he might have gone to, and these friends do all the things coming of age boys do as they go in search of the missing boy.

It's my favorite Rob Reiner movie. It might be my favorite movie of all times. It is filled with superb actors, like River Phoenix and Will Wheaton who the story circulates around.

The movie is perfectly casted as talented coming of age actors follow a brilliant director on a journey of discovery and friendship.

I love that movie. It stands with 'The Godfather' as one of the best movies ever made.

All of Rob Reiner's movies are about to be played, replayed, and played again as we remember how important they were to our own lives. I literally grew up watching what he had to tell me about life, love, and laughter.

Rob Reiner was a mensch. He told the stories of our lives.

We'll need to go on without his directions from now on. Gone too soon.


Send Rick an email at quillswritersrealm
@yahoo.com

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"Going to Running Horse"

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