Fear Weaver

Tale of Woe

Nate King was seething mad. He’d seen too many people die because they were careless. All it took was one mistake. He was doubly incensed because Ryker had lived in the Rockies almost as long as he had and was well aware of the dangers. Yet Ryker let Tyne go out by herself.

But as mad as Nate was, he didn’t hit Ryker in the mouth, or even the face. He hit him in the chest. The blow sent Ryker tumbling from the bench.

“Mr. King!” Erleen cried.

Cursing, Ryker scrambled to his feet. “What the hell was that for?”

“I told you not to let anyone go out.”

Ryker blinked, then glanced at Tyne. “I told them not to. But her mother sent her to find you.”

“Why didn’t you come look for me instead?”

“The mother asked the girl. I’m not their nurse-maid. If they won’t listen, it’s on their shoulders.”

Nate would have torn into him again if not for Aunt Aggie. Suddenly she was between them, her hand on Nate’s chest.

“No more. Please. It’s upsetting everyone.”

The Woodrows were appalled by the violence. Erleen had her hand to her throat. Anora was wringing her hands. Peter wore a stern look of disapproval. But what cut Nate the deepest was the bewilderment on Tyne’s face. He stepped back. “Sorry,” he said—to them, not to Ryker.

“My word!” Erleen exclaimed. “That was uncalled for. You acted like a savage.”

Nate directed his anger at her. “When will you get it through your head? This isn’t Pennsylvania. You can’t let Tyne go wandering out alone.”

“I only sent her to call you. She wasn’t to go far, and we are right here.”

Nate shook his head in disgust. Some people were too thickheaded for their own good. He was about to say as much when when Philberta stirred and groaned. The rest quickly gathered around her, with the lone exception of Ryker. He sat on the bench and glared.

Nate went over to the others.

Philberta had opened her eyes and was gazing about in confusion. She licked her thick lips with the pink tip of her tongue, then weakly said, “Where? What?”

Erleen gently squeezed her hand. “Everything is all right. You are in your cabin in the Rockies. Peter and I came to find you after we hadn’t heard from you for so long.”

“Erleen? Is it really you?”

“It’s really and truly us. All of us. We brought the whole family. Plus my sister.”

“Agatha too?”

It could be Nate’s imagination but Philberta didn’t sound happy about Aggie being there.

“She’s always been fond of Sully. You know that. She was gracious enough to foot the bill for much of the cost for our expedition.”

Philberta’s eyes roved the half circle of anxious faces and fixed on Agatha. “Thank you.”

“You are welcome, dear.”

Peter bent low. “Tell us. Where is my brother? Why aren’t Sully and your boys here?”

“Give me a minute,” Philberta said. “I can’t think straight. I am all confused.”

Nate didn’t see what she had to be confused about. To him, she was stalling. But then, his wife always said he had a suspicious nature.

“Take your time,” Erleen told her. “We are here for you. Whatever you want, you only have to ask.”

“I can’t believe all of you have come so far on our behalf.”

Peter said, “The Woodrows stick by one another, come what may. Sully would be there for me if I needed help.” He gripped her wrist. “Where is he?”

Erleen, appalled, slapped her husband’s arm. “Let go of her! Can’t you see she is in a bad way? The poor dear has been through some sort of ordeal.”

“That I have,” Philberta said softly. “An ordeal such as none of you could possibly conceive.”

“Enlighten us,” Aunt Aggie said.

“I lost a baby.”

Nate was as shocked as the Woodrows. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Ryker chuckle, and he almost went over to hit him again.

“A baby!” Erleen exclaimed. “Philberta! At your age?”

“I know, I know. It’s been fourteen years since our last. Since Blayne was born. We certainly didn’t want any more. But shortly after Sully finished building our cabin, I found I was in the family way. I was scared, terribly scared, as I wouldn’t have a doctor or even a midwife to attend me.”

“I don’t blame you. I would have been scared too.”

“But Sully was confident everything would be fine. You should have seen him. So caring. So devoted.”

“That’s my brother for you,” Peter said proudly.

Philberta wanly smiled. “But confidence isn’t always enough. Especially when we started to go hungry.”

“What are you talking about?” Peter asked. “Sully is the best hunter I know.”

“He never had trouble keeping food on our table back in Pennsylvania, that’s for sure,” Philberta replied. “There was so much game. Deer, rabbits, squirrels, grouse, pheasant, woodchucks.” She paused. “But it turned out not to be the same here.”

“Nonsense. These mountains teem with wildlife. We saw a fair amount of animals with our own eyes.”

“So did we, at first. But it wasn’t as easy as Sully thought it would be. The black-tailed deer aren’t as plentiful as the whitetails used to be. And the smaller game was the same.”

“What about elk?” Erleen asked.

“They are a lot higher up, and wary. There are squirrels and rabbits, but not nearly as plentiful as we were used to.”

Nate could have told them. A lot of Easterners assumed it was as easy to fill the supper pot west of the Mississippi as it was east of the Mississippi. But they were mistaken. Yes, there was a lot of wildlife, but not as much. Yes, deer were deer, but blacktails were a lot more wary than their eastern cousins, and a lot harder to hunt and bring down.

“Sully did his best. And our boys helped. Norton was eighteen. Liford seventeen. Blayne fourteen. They could all hunt. They went out with Sully day after day but too often all of them came home empty-handed.”

“Preposterous.”

“Let her talk, Peter,” Erleen said.

“With five mouths to feed and a baby on the way, it got so we were missing meals. We had to eat whatever we could. Sully told us to watch the animals. Whatever they ate would be safe for us.”

Nate frowned. There it was again. The ridiculous notion that was so widespread people took it as gospel.

“We got sickly, though. I was worst of all. Probably because of the baby Sully made me stay in bed. He had the boys do the chores, the sweeping and cooking and whatnot. But I grew weaker and weaker.” Philberta stopped, and shuddered. “Finally the day came.” She looked up at Erleen and tears filled her eyes. “It was a girl. She was stillborn.”

“Dear God.”

“We buried her out back and got on with our lives. Sully was so sweet. But he was worried too. We all were. Between him and my sons, they pretty much hunted all the game in our valley. They had to go farther and farther afield, and left me alone for days at a time.”

Erleen stroked her brow. “You poor dear.”

“Then Sully shot a bull elk. They butchered it and brought the meat home and for a while we had plenty to eat. Thick, juicy steaks, smothered in mushrooms and greens. They dried a lot of the meat for jerky. We thought the worst was over.” Philberta took a deep breath. “Then Norton disappeared.”

“No!”

“He told us he had found Indian sign. He was going to show Sully the next day, but that evening he went out and didn’t come back. We never saw him again.”

“Surely there was some sign of what happened to him?” Peter asked.

“Sully took Liford and Blayne and they searched for Norton for days. But they didn’t find him.”

Nate had a few questions that needed asking. He interrupted with, “What about that Indian sign?”

“Pardon?” Philberta craned her neck and rose slightly to see him. “Who are you? I’ve never seen you before.”

“This is Mr. King,” Erleen said. “A mountain man who helped us find your cabin.”

“Oh. What was it you wanted to know?”

“You mentioned Indian sign. Did your husband and your other sons find any when they were out?”

“No. None.” Philberta sniffled. “We were all so sad, losing Norton. Sully made us stay close to the cabin. And pretty soon practically all our elk meat was gone. They had to go hunt again, and that was when Liford vanished.”

Erleen gasped. “Your middle son too?”

“It gets worse,” Philberta said. “Sully and Blayne searched and searched but couldn’t find a trace of him. Sully was heartbroken. Two of his boys, gone. He insisted Blayne stay with me at all times.”

Peter impatiently demanded, “But where are Sully and Blayne now? Don’t tell me they disappeared as well?”

“I’m coming to that.”

“Hush, Peter, and let her tell her story.”

Philberta closed her eyes, her face a portrait of sorrow. “We began to feel as if we were being watched.Sully was convinced that something, or someone, was spying on us. Blayne said he felt the same at times. I felt it least, but I wasn’t outside as much as they were.”

“The savages, I bet,” Peter growled. “They killed Norton and Liford, and they were after the rest of you.”

“I won’t tell you again to hush.”

Philberta’s lower lip quivered. “We had no food left. It got so we were reduced to eating mushrooms and weeds—”

“How awful!” Erleen said.

“But Sully didn’t give up. He went off after another elk. Blayne stayed home. Along about the third day, he went to the stream for water and never came back.”

Peter shook a fist. “Those damned heathens! Mr. King, Mr. Ryker, we must find out which tribe is to blame.”

“Honestly, Peter.”

“Sorry, dear.”

“Go on, Philberta.”

Philberta struggled to compose herself. “When Sully came back from the elk hunt empty-handed and found that Blayne was gone, something changed inside of him. He ranted and raved about taking revenge. I tried to reason with him. I pleaded. I got down on my knees and begged. But he wouldn’t listen. He filled his powder horn and ammo pouch and went off to find the slayers of our children.”

“Good for him!” Peter declared.

A tear trickled from Philberta’s right eye. “He never came back. I waited and waited, praying hour by hour. Finally I couldn’t deny the truth any longer. I was all alone in the middle of these vast mountains, left to fend for myself without a weapon or a mount.”

Nate couldn’t stay silent. “Wait. Where were your horses?”

“Gone. Before Norton disappeared. That’s partly why we didn’t just saddle up and leave.”

Erleen held her sister-in-law’s hand to her bosom. “The horror of it all. You have my utter sympathy my dear. But take heart. We are here now, and no further harm shall befall you.”

“I am glad you have come.”

“We will take care of you, dear,” Erleen said. “We brought two pack horses with plenty of food.”

Peter nodded. “And we have Mr. King and Mr. Ryker. They know these mountains well and will keep us well supplied with meat.”

Ryker took a swig of brandy. “Maybe Mr. High and Mighty will hunt for you. But not me. I’ve heard enough. I’m leaving.”

“What are you talking about?” Erleen asked

Upending the bottle, Ryker smacked his lips and wiped his mouth with his sleeve. “Haven’t you people been listening? Hostiles killed your precious Sully and his boys. They will kill us if we stay. The smart thing to do is pack whatever you want to take and get the hell out of here while we still have our skin.”

Erleen turned. “I am tired of asking you to watch your language around my children.”

“And I am tired of you asking.” Ryker wagged the empty bottle. “Don’t any of you have a lick of sense? Do you all want to lose your hair? Because I sure as hell don’t. I’m not staying a single night in this cabin,or this valley. If we leave within the hour we can be shed of it by sundown.”

Aunt Aggie straightened. “You keep forgetting, Mr. Ryker. Abandon us, and I won’t pay the rest of the money.”

“Lady, at this point I don’t give a good damn about being paid. I care about my hide.”

“You are despicable,” Erleen said.

Ryker pointed the bottle at Nate. “Don’t just stand there like a lump. Tell them, damn it. You know I’m right. If they don’t leave, they’re all going to die.”