Dead Man's Walk

“Now what’s he doing digging, out on the prairie?” Long Bill asked. “Do you think he’s digging for onions, or spuds of some kind?”

Bigfoot stopped digging when he saw the group approaching. They all waved, even though they were a hundred yards away. Bigfoot didn’t wave. He watched a minute, and then returned to his digging.

Call was a little ahead of the troop—there was a smell in the air that Call had never smelled before, a burned smell with a sweetness in it like cooked meat sometimes had when the meat was fresh. When old Jesus roasted a baby lamb in its skin it sometimes smelled like what they were smelling then.

Then, abruptly, Call saw what Bigfoot was doing—he stopped his horse, causing Gus, who was just behind him, to ride into him.

“Whoa, what is it?” Gus asked, confused for a moment.

“Bigfoot ain’t digging onions,” Call said.

“What is he digging, then?” Long Bill asked—he was too nearsighted to see clearly what young Call saw.

“He’s digging a grave,” Call said.

THE RANGER TROOP APPROACHED, but too slowly to suit Bigfoot Wallace. He had already cut the blackened corpses of the two mule ski

“Are you men praying? If you ain’t, get down and help me,” he said impatiently.

“Oh Lord, look!” Rip Green said. He barely was .off his horse before he began to puke. Gus didn’t dare look, really—he threw the briefest glance at the two blackened corpses and turned his eyes away. Even so, his stomach rose—he rode off a few steps, hoping to get the smell out of his nostrils before he had to dismount and puke like Rip.

Call got down and immediately began to help Bigfoot. He tried not to look at the two corpses but could not help seeing that their teeth were bared in the agony in which they died. There were ashes in front of the wagon wheels they had been tied to. A twist of smoke still rose in front of the fires.

Call did have a good knife. Old Jesus had forged it for him, sharpened it carefully, and bound the handle with tight rawhide. Call dug hard—it was the only way he could keep his mind off what had happened to the two men. One of the burned wagons was still smouldering. It was only then, when he glanced up, that he noticed that the prairie around the wagon was white: the two mule ski

“Lordy, these boys weren’t lucky,” Long Bill observed philosophically, walking around the scene of the torture.

“Nope, and they weren’t prepared, either,” Bigfoot said. “I guess that old shotgun was the only weapon they had with them.” He nodded toward the shotgun, which had been broken in two on a large rock that stuck up from the ground.

“I wouldn’t set off with a load of flour and nothing to defend myself with except a fowling piece—not in this country,” Blackie Slidell remarked.

“There’s empty sacks in that other wagon that ain’t too burned,” Bigfoot said. “Go get a few, Gus, and roll these men in them. We need to move out. I make it about nine Indians that cooked these men, and one of them was Buffalo Hump.”

“Did you see him?” Joh

“No, but he’s still riding that painted pony he rode that day he killed Josh and Zeke,” Bigfoot said. “I studied his track, in case I ever had to fight him again, and his track is all around these wagons.”

“Oh, Lord—I was afraid it was him,” Rip Green said. He was white and shaky.

Joh

“I wish there was more timber on this road,” Blackie Slidell said. “I don’t know if we could whip nine of those rascals if they came charging and we had nothing to hide behind.”

“Nine’s about the right size for a raiding party,” Bigfoot observed. He had about finished his digging. The grave wasn’t deep enough, but it would have to do.

“Why?” Call asked.

“Why what?” Bigfoot replied. The youngster was a good digger, and besides, he was steady. Of all the troop, he was the least affected by the sight of charred bodies. Of course, Long Bill wasn’t shaking or puking, but Long Bill was notorious for his bad eyesight. He probably hadn’t come close enough to take a good look.

“Why is nine a good size?” Call asked, as Gus handed him an armful of sacks. He spread one layer of sacking over each man, and then rolled the bodies over and tucked another layer of sacking over their backsides. It was curious how stiff bodies got—the dead men’s limbs were as stiff as wood.

“Nine’s about right,” Bigfoot said, impressed that young Call was eager to learn, even while performing an unpleasant task. “Nine men who know the country can slip between the settlements without being noticed. They can watch the settlers and figure out which farms to attack. If there’s a family with four or five big strapping boys who look like they can shoot, they’ll leave it and go on to one where there’s mostly womenfolk.”

Matilda Roberts stood looking at the corpses as Call and Gus finished covering them with sacking. She recognized one of the men; his name was Eli, and he had come to her more than once.

“That nearest one is Eli Baker,” she said. “He worked in the flour mill. I know him by his ear.”

“What about his ear?” Bigfoot asked.

“Look at it, before you rake the dirt over him,” Matilda said. “He got half his ear cut off when he was a boy—the bottom half. That’s Eh Baker for sure. We ought to try to get word to his family. I believe he had several young ‘uns.”

“And a wife?” Bigfoot asked.

“Well, he didn’t have the young ‘uns himself,” Matilda said. “I ain’t seen him in a year or two, but I know he’s Eli Baker.”

When the corpses were covered, everyone stood around awkwardly for a minute. The wide prairie was empty, though the tall grass sang from the breeze. The sun shone brilliantly. Bigfoot took the stock of the broken shotgun and tamped the dirt solidly over the grave of the two wagoneers.

“If anybody knows a good scripture, let them say it,” Bigfoot said. “We need to skedaddle. I’d rather not have to race no Comanches today—my horse is lame.”

“There’s that scripture about the green pastures,” Long Bill recalled. “It’s about the Lord being a shepherd.”

“So say it then, Bill,” Bigfoot said. He caught his horse and waited impatiently to mount.

Long Bill was silent.

“Well, there’s the green pastures,” he said. “That’s all I can recall. It’s been awhile since I had any dealings with scriptures.”

“Can anyone say it?” Bigfoot asked.

“Leadeth me beside the still waters,” Matilda said. “I think that’s the one Bill’s talking about.”

“Well, this is a green pasture, at least,” Bigfoot said. “It’ll be greener, if it keeps raining.”

“I wonder why people want to say scriptures when they’ve buried somebody?” Call reflected to Gus as they were trotting on toward Austin. “They’re dead—they can’t hear no holy talk.”

Gus had the scared feeling inside again. The Indian who had nearly brought him down with a lance was somewhere around. He might be tracking them, or watching them, even then. He might be anywhere, with his warriors. They were approaching a little copse of live-oak trees thick enough to conceal a party of Comanches. What if Buffalo Hump and his warriors suddenly burst out, yelling their terrible war cries? Would he be able to shoot straight? Would he have the guts to fire a bullet through his eyeball if the battle went against them? Would he end up burned, swollen, and stiff, like the two men they had just buried? Those were the important questions, when you were out on the prairie where the wild men lived. Why people said scriptures over the dead was not an issue he could concentrate his mind on, not when he had the scared feeling in hisstomach. Even if he could have had the pork chop his mouth had been watering for the night before, he had no confidence that he could have kept it down.