By Cheryl McCreary
Copyright 1999
That fateful day had started as many others. Buck and Teaspoon were in the marshal's office lounging around. The day had been uneventful. As had many days that week. Then from outside they had both heard a commotion and quickly rose to their feet to check it out. It turned out to be a group of cavalry soldiers with a captured Indian brave. They had him tied by a rope to one of the soldiers saddle horns and were half dragging him through town. The townsfolk in Rock Creek were cheering. Indian raids had been worse than usual the past few weeks and they were excited to know that the cavalry was taking care of the problem.
Teaspoon knew that it wasn't that odd for the cavalry to stop in to use his jail cell to kept a captive until they moved on. There wasn't a fort nearby and the old marshal never complained of lending a hand. Teaspoon might have thought that what the US army was doing to the Indians was wrong. But it wasn't his place to deny them his services. The soldiers stopped their horses. The Indian brave stumbled at the sudden motion and fell to his knees. The soldiers dismounted. The officer in charge went to ask Teaspoon for the use of his cell but Buck's attention was elsewhere. He watched as two other soldiers walked toward the fallen brave. After that night at the soldier fort where he himself was beaten by soldiers he was wary of what they would do with this brave. He noticed that the brave was already badly beaten. Buck could also tell that he had been dragged at times on the ground. He was sure that the brave's legs and whole body was aching in pain. He wondered what the brave had been caught doing.
The soldiers asked the brave to stand up. He didn't respond. Buck was sure that he was sore and tired. He looked up at the soldiers and tried to rise to his feet, but his tired legs wouldn't let him. Buck noticed something familiar about the face of the brave. Did he know him? He looked closer at the dress. It was Kiowa. Even through the caked mud and dried blood he was sure of that.
The soldiers asked the brave to stand again getting annoyed at what they took to be resistance. When the brave still couldn't make it to his feet one of the soldiers punched the brave. The brave, which had halfway rose, fell back to the hard ground. Then both soldiers started to hit the brave. Buck heard a meek, "No, please don't," from the brave. Then Buck realized that he did know the brave. He was Two Foxes. Buck leapt forward to stop the attack of the soldiers. The commotion had attracted the attention of the officer and Teaspoon. Seeing their commanding officer offended by their actions the soldiers backed away from the brave. Buck reached down and lightly said Two Foxes name in the Kiowa tongue. Two Foxes looked up at him and after a moment recognized his half-blood friend.
Buck helped Two Foxes to his feet with Teaspoon's help and the two of them escorted the brave to the jail cell. Buck wondered what Two Foxes had done. Buck knew his friend to be peaceful. The only way Two Foxes would hurt anyone was in self-defense.
Buck had talked to Two Foxes in the Kiowa tongue. Asked the young brave what he had done. What the cavalry wanted him for. And Teaspoon had sat in the office, quietly watching as Buck talked to the Indian that he knew. Teaspoon knew nothing of what Buck and the young brave talked about, but he trusted that Buck would tell him any useful information when he was done.
Just as Buck was finishing the door to the Marshal's office opened and Cody and Jimmy walked in. Cody had thrown the door wide open and with a huge smile on his face and a bit of a theatrical flare said, "Why Teaspoon, you ol' cogner, image meetin' you here."
Teaspoon was so surprised by the sudden arrival of his old charge that he almost spilled hot coffee all down his front. He quickly regained control of the coffee cup and placed it on the table as he rose to greet his visitors with a smile, "What brings you boys to Sweetwater?" he asked.
Cody stood up tall and slightly puffed out his chest as he answered, "We're on official army business." He then proceeded to tell the old marshal all about how he and Jimmy had been personally asked, by Colonel Custer himself, to help out with some renegade Indians that were stirring up trouble in the area.
Cody was his ever boisterous, confident and optimistic self. Buck wondered if anything in life could ever get his old friend down. He envied Cody for his ability to let what life gave him roll smoothly off those broad shoulders of his.
Jimmy however was another story. It had been six years since he had last seen James Hickok and Buck could tell that the years had been just as unkind to his friend as they had to him. Rachel had told Buck that Jimmy had been a scout for awhile then had become a lawman for a time in the lawless Kansas cow towns. It seemed like just the kind of work everyone thought Jimmy would always end up doing. Rachel hadn't heard from Jimmy lately and had been worried when there were reports of his death in dime novels.
Obviously Jimmy was still alive. Rachel would be happy to see him. But there was a sadness in Jimmy's eyes that had never been there before. Buck didn't know were it came from. It wasn't his right to ask. But he knew the feeling. A black cloud would always hang over him too. Jimmy had finally seen too much of life. And once you start down that road you can never go back. You can never unsee the events that you've lived.
While Teaspoon and Cody happily chatted away Jimmy and Buck stood silently beside them. Jimmy lifted his eyes to look at Buck, two kindred souls in a world full of grief and heartache.
Finally Cody finished talking. Teaspoon looked at Buck. Buck knew that he wanted to know what Two Foxes had told him. Without a word between them Buck answered the old marshal. "He's being charged with killing a cavalry officer. He did not do it."
"Custer saw him himself," Cody explained to clarify the matter.
"Then Custer is lying." Buck plainly stated.
"You callin' Colonel Custer a liar?" Cody asked Buck a little threatening. Buck knew that the Colonel was a good friend of Cody's. He wondered if Cody knew what things Buck had heard told about the army colonel.
Teaspoon didn't give Buck a chance to respond. "You know the man?" he asked Buck and whatever argument might have arisen between Cody and Buck dissolved into the air.
"Yes, I know him," Buck answered. "His name is Two Foxes. He's Kiowa. He could not have done what they say he has."
"And just why is that?" Cody asked, although his voice showed that he supported Custer, Cody wanted to know the truth.
"Two Foxes believes in peace, not fighting. He supports the words of (Lone Fox)," Buck answered.
"People can change," Cody stated. He was meaning that Two Foxes' beliefs might have changed since Buck saw him last, and Buck knew that that was possible. War can greatly alter a man's ideas of the world. Buck knew that first hand. But Cody was also talking of that night at the fort. Cody would never trust him again. He knew what Buck had done and although he would never tell the others Buck had lost the trust of his good friend. Buck could see that distrust in Cody's eyes. And Buck noticed that Teaspoon and Jimmy saw it too. And Buck knew that they wouldn't ask either of them why that look existed in Cody's eyes.
"Yes, they can," Buck answered after a small silence. "But Two Foxes has not." Buck thought of ending the conversation there. He knew that he should. But his heart wouldn't let him. He knew that what he would say would hurt Cody and he didn't want to. But what the cavalry did to the Indians was wrong. And hanging Two Foxes for something he didn't do, no matter who said he did, was also wrong. "You and I are enemies on this. You might think Custer is a good man, and to the white man he might be, but to the red man he has done nothing but wrong, and I will not stand by and let him do it again."
With that Buck walked out of the office. He knew that he should stay. He knew the questioning look Teaspoon cast after him, the look of anger that Cody's face held, the look of confusion that graced Jimmy's face. But he left anyway.
Buck had no sooner left the marshal's office when he bumped into Colonel Custer himself. The colonel was causally strolling to go see his captured Indian in the jail cell and make sure that all was well. He wasn't paying much attention to where he was going however, and Buck was trying to escape his actions from his conversation with Cody. It saddened him that Cody was now an enemy. He knew what it must have felt like for Kid when he decided to support his native state of Virginia in the war. He had made the ever positive Cody think negatively of him. But Buck knew that even if Cody didn't share his believes and even if Cody didn't trust him, they were still brothers. They would always be. Cody would still protect him from harm as he had at the fort. And Buck would repay the favor without a single thought. But Cody would never look at him the same way. And maybe Buck didn't deserve Cody to consider him a good man anymore. Buck believed in his heart that he no longer was one.
Caught up in his own thoughts and feelings Buck had run into Custer and then brushed past him still lost in thought. The movement had been rude, but Buck was too preoccupied with others things to think much on it. Custer however held a different view. As Buck continued to walk down the street to Rachel's, Custer stopped dead in his tracks in front of the door to the marshal's office. He then turned around to see who had so rudely bumped into him and quickly noticed the buckskins and long black hair of an Indian.
"Hey! You!" Custer yelled. The loud voice of the Colonel pulled Buck out of his thoughts. He turned to look back at the Colonel standing on the porch of the marshal's office. Buck noticed the angry look on the Colonel's face, saw that Teaspoon, Jimmy and Cody had come out of the office to see what the problem was. He should apologize to Custer. The bump was his fault even if the army Colonel had been walking a crooked line down the street, a crooked line for a crooked man. Buck had to make sure to keep from smiling at his own private joke.
"You gonna apologize?" Custer asked as he walked down the steps of the porch and toward where Buck stood in the street.
Buck still didn't say a word. His dark brown eyes glared at Custer out of a face that was set like stone. He would give the Colonel no pleasure at his expense. Colonel Custer might be a good man, but he hated the Indians. Saw no problem with murdering their women and children. In Custer's mind there was no good Indian. So Buck saw no reason to apologize he was already disliked by the man, what reason did he have to be nice to him.
Teaspoon seeing Custer's anger and Buck's lack of a response decided that he probably needed to step into this one. He knew Buck's opinions on the cavalry and men like Custer, even if they had never talked about it. Buck no longer fought with the Kiowa. But Teaspoon knew that Buck still sided with them whatever his reasons for not fighting.
"What exactly seems to be the problem here?" Teaspoon asked as he strolled off the porch and placed himself between the two men before him.
Custer had noticed the tin badge that read deputy on Buck's dark wool vest and figured that the Indian before him was the marshal's deputy. Buck saw that Custer noticed his place as law in this town. Buck was sure that to such a man the idea of an Indian, even if he was a half-breed, being trusted by the town marshal was odd.
"Your deputy here just bumped into me for no reason," Custer responded to the question. He was slightly defense, thinking that the marshal would take the side of his deputy, and the way he had said the word deputy gave the impression that he didn't think an Indian should be trusted with upholding the peace at all. "I'd like at least an apology." Buck still stared at the man in front of him. He saw no reason to apologize and would prefer to be allowed to continue walking down the street. He knew that if he stayed his words wouldn't be nice. He didn't mind offending the man before him, but he wasn't looking to make the man any more of an enemy than he already was.
Teaspoon noticed Buck's lack of response and wondered what was going on in that brain of his. He figured that Buck had no intention of apologizing and hoped that the anger that was brimming to the surface in his young deputy wouldn't be voiced. Teaspoon was certain that Custer wouldn't like to hear Buck's opinions on the war between the US army and the Indians. "Now Buck an apology wouldn't hurt," Teaspoon gently prodded hoping that Buck could control the anger long enough to briefly apologize and continue on his way.
Buck still stood there in front of Custer, his eyes on fire. He wasn't going to apologize and Custer wouldn't leave with any less. It was not Buck that should be apologizing anyway. It was Custer who led massacres against unarmed Indian villages. He was the one that killed women, children and old men. He was the one that believed the Indians should all be killed. He was the one that looked down at Buck for being a deputy and Teaspoon for allowing him to do that. The anger within him came slipping out at this smug army colonel before him.
"It is you that should be apologizing to me," Buck said with anger. "You are the one that kills the red man like they were some scourge on the Earth that needs to be cleaned up."
Custer looked at him, bewildered by the angry words, wondering what he had done to make on enemy of a total stranger. "Have we meet before?" Custer asked. Maybe the young Indian before him had some reason to dislike him.
Buck watched the colonel confused by his anger. He didn't realize what he did to the Indians, to Buck's people. He didn't think he did wrong and this angered Buck even more. How could one human being do that stuff to others and not realize what is was he did? Did he not realize that he was killing the Indians, killing their way of life? Custer and men like him were taking away the soul of the red man slowly piece by piece. Until finally one day there would be nothing left but ancient memories and legends of a time long ago when peace had existed for the red man before the white man had ever even thought of setting foot on this land.
Buck lashed out at the colonel. He wished that he had the power to kill the man before him. It would feel good to rid the world of him. But Buck knew that in the white world such actions were not accepted. Buck longed to kill the man before him, but he had promised himself that another man would not die by his hands, for the sake of his sanity and his son Isaac.
Buck quickly moved toward the Colonel so that they were face to face. Buck's dark eyes stared into the blue of Custer's. Buck could see the fear in those eyes as thoughts of the Indian before him harming him ran through Custer's head. Instead of a weapon however, Buck lashed out at the Colonel with words that were as pointed and deadly as any weapon he had used in battle. "I have meet you, although I doubt you know me." Buck saw the confusion in the Colonel's eyes. He didn't know what to expect from the Indian before him. Custer's fear and confusion brought Buck joy. It was almost as good as killing him. "We meet in battle. I killed and scalped your first lieutenant. His blonde hair hangs proudly from my belt." The anger that dripped from those words made the Colonel's eyes grow wide with fear. There was hatred in those words, hatred that penetrated deep into Buck's heart and soul, hatred that would never leave him.
Then Buck turned his face still set like stone, his eyes burning with anger and walked out down the street. No one stopped him. He knew that those words would never be forgotten by any who had witnessed them. He had given Custer yet one more reason to hate the red man and cared little about it. He had made Cody trust him ever less. He had made Jimmy doubt him, probably for the first time in his life. And he had made Teaspoon worry about what good was truly left in his soul.
On to Chapter Ten
