Ralph Compton: Do or Die

Just then a four-legged form shot out of the vegetation to his rescue. The dog snarled, its fangs white in the starlight, and bounded toward the bull holding Mat-ta-vish. “No!” he shouted in Shoshone, but the dog did not heed.

Another rider burst from the cottonwoods. He was swinging something over his head. Mat-ta-vish recognized it was a rope a few heartbeats before the loop darted at the charging mongrel like a striking snake. Dog and rope met in midair, and the dog yelped as the noose constricted around its neck and it was brought up short with a snap.

Whooping merrily, the rider spurred his horse toward the stream, dragging the mongrel after him. The dog tried to regain its footing, but the horse was moving too fast. It yipped when it struck a boulder, and Mat-ta-vish was sure he heard the crack of breaking bone.

Two more whites appeared. In the lead was one who sat tall in the saddle and did not rein up until his bay practically trod on Mat-ta-vish. He had white hair, this man, sticking out from under his hat and growing on his chin, but he was not old. If Mat-ta-vish had to guess, he would say the tall rider had not seen more than thirty winters.

“Do you know who we are?”

Mat-ta-vish did not respond even when the bull who was holding him shook him as a badger might shake a mouse.

“It won’t do no good to play dumb. Word is, you savvy the white tongue just fine. So I’ll ask one more time. If you don’t answer, we’ll whittle on you some until you do.”

The white who had taken Mat-ta-vish’s knife held it under Mat-ta-vish’s nose. “Just say the word, Alvord. There’s nothin’ I’d like more than to carve up this red scum.” This one was as lean as a sapling and spoke with a peculiar twang.

“Do you know who we are?” Alvord repeated.

“Yes,” Mat-ta-vish admitted. He had long dreaded they might pay him a visit. Word of his herd had been bound to reach their ears eventually.

“Say it.”

“You are the Hoodoos. My people have suffered much at your hands. The bluecoats have told us to be on the watch for you. They will put you in the room made of bars at the fort if they catch you here.”

The man who had ridden up with Alvord now laughed. He was young, his face baby-smooth, and had to have been the runt of the litter when he was born. His slicker was swept back to reveal a pair of revolvers with shiny grips. “That’ll be the day. Those bluebellies couldn’t catch their hind ends without help.”

Alvord leaned on his saddle horn. “Where are they, old-timer?”

Mat-ta-vish would rather have his tongue cut out.

“We’ll find them on our own. Your valley isn’t that big. But we want to light a shuck before any of your kin show up, so do us both a favor and tell us where your horses are.” Alvord waited, and when no reply came, he nodded at the man who had taken Mat-ta-vish’s knife. “Go ahead, Noonan.”

“My pleasure, pard.”

The knife flashed, and Mat-ta-vish winced as his right cheek was opened like a ripe melon. But he did not cry out.

“I can’t hear you, old man,” Noonan drawled.

Again the blade glinted. Again Mat-ta-vish felt a damp sensation on his face. Blood trickled into his mouth.

Noonan shifted the knife down low. “I can keep this up all night.”

Mat-ta-vish stood straighter. Long ago he had been a warrior of renown. Many coup were counted to his credit, and his advice had been sought on matters of import in council. While his sinews were not what they once were, he was still a warrior. He still had his pride.

“You’re dumb as a shovel,” Noonan said and set to work.

The pain was excruciating. Mat-ta-vish doubled over. The bull holding him let go, and he pitched to his knees.

“Damn it, Noonan! I don’t want this heathen’s blood all over my new pants!”

“New? Hell, Ben, you bought them over two months ago and ain’t washed them once since. A little blood will lend the dirt some color.”

“That’s the most foolish notion I’ve ever heard.” Ben had a great moon face split by bushy eyebrows and a hooked nose the size of an eagle’s beak.

“No more foolish than those onions you’re always eatin’.”

Mat-ta-vish barely heard. Waves of agony washed over him, and he gritted his teeth to keep from crying out. It hurt worse than the time a Piegan lance had pierced his leg. Worse, even, than the time he was thrown by his pinto during a buffalo surround and nearly trampled to death before a friend had pulled him to safety.

A saddle creaked. A callused hand gripped Mat-ta-vish by the jaw and tilted his head back. “Had enough?” Alvord asked. “This doesn’t need to take forever. We can get it over with pronto. All you have to do is tell us where they are.” He waited, and when Mat-ta-vish stayed silent, he went on. “It’s not like you can trick us. We know all about the horses you raise. The best of their kind in the territory. It would be a shame for all that prime horseflesh to go to waste.”

Even through the haze of torment, Mat-ta-vish wondered how the Hoodoos had heard. Through his nephew, possibly. The boy was scouting for the army. Mat-ta-vish had given him one of his best horses, and although his nephew had promised not to tell anyone where it came from, the young were never as tight-lipped as they should be.

Alvord sighed and straightened. “Some folks are too damn stubborn for their own good.”

Hooves hammered, and from the direction of the stream trotted the white man who had roped the dog and dragged it off. He was still dragging it, only now it was limp and still. “Yeehaw! I haven’t had this grand a time in a month of Sundays!”

“Yell a little louder, why don’t you, Curly?” Alvord was angry. “That way we can have the whole Shoshone nation down on our heads.”

Curly did not let the comment spoil his mood. “We’re miles from the nearest village, so they aren’t likely to hear. You’re just jealous ’cause I’m the only one in this outfit who knows how to have fun.”

“Killin’ dogs ain’t hardly my notion of a frolic,” Noonan interjected. “Give me a filly and a bottle of rotgut any day.”

The young runt who wore revolvers with shiny grips cursed and kneed his mount closer. “We’re wastin’ time with all this jawin’. Kill the damned treaty Injun so we can get this over with.”

“Simmer down, Kid,” Alvord said. “I always know what I’m doin’, don’t I?”

“You’ve never once led us astray, and that’s a fact,” the Kid agreed. “But we’ve already been gone a week and a half. We’ll have to lay low in one of our hidey-holes at least that long to be sure the army has lost our trail. Then it’s another two weeks to get the herd to our buyer.”

“Since when have you counted days like they were poker chips?”

Curly chuckled. “I know why the Kid is actin’ like a wolverine with a burr up its ass. He’s pinin’ for that gal he met at the Lucky Star. What was her name again?”

The Kid’s hands were a blur. He leveled both Colts at his curly-topped companion and warned, “I’ll thank you not to bring her up ever again, Curly Means, or so help me God, I’ll put windows in your skull.”

The whites froze. All eyes were on the young one. No one noticed Mat-ta-vish as, on hands and knees, he crept toward the cottonwoods. They had forgotten about him for the moment. A heated argument broke out, smothering the slight noise he made. As soon as the undergrowth closed around him, Mat-ta-vish rose into a crouch and hobbled as fast as his legs would carry him. He was weak from loss of blood, and every step was torture. But he refused to stay and be butchered. He would die on his own terms.

Mat-ta-vish wished he could save his herd. He did not like the idea of his horses being sold to fill the pockets of a greedy pack of killers and thieves, but he was in no condition to stop them even if he could.