Many a River - Softcover

Elmer Kelton (1926-2009) was the award-winning author of more than forty novels, including The Time It Never Rained, Other Men’s Horses, Texas Standoff and Hard Trail to Follow. He grew up on a ranch near Crane, Texas, and earned a journalism degree from the University of Texas. His first novel, Hot Iron, was published in 1956. Among his awards have been seven Spurs from Western Writers of America and four Western Heritage awards from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. His novel The Good Old Boys was made into a television film starring Tommy Lee Jones. In addition to his novels, Kelton worked as an agricultural journalist for 42 years, and served in the infantry in World War II. He died in 2009.

Chapter One

 

North Texas, 1855

 

Jeffrey Barfield wondered how much farther Papa would continue to travel before he found a settle-down place that suited him. The family had left Arkansas by wagon two months ago and slowly picked their way across the eastern part of Texas, looking for land Papa would consider to be just right. Mama had seen a dozen sites she would be happy with, but Papa invariably said, "There's bound to be better a little farther west."

 

Eight-going-on-nine, Jeffrey was beginning to fear the family would still be wandering when he celebrated his next birthday. They had passed through Fort Worth, then moved on westward, stopping hopefully here a day, there a day, and going on. Now they had camped on a pleasant, clear-running creek miles beyond Weatherford. Papa walked in a slow circle, kicking up soil with his boot, then reaching down with calloused farmer hands to scoop up a bit of it. He sniffed at it and let it slowly spill out between his fingers.

 

Watching from afar, Jeffrey said, "Reckon this is it, Mama? Reckon he'll decide this is the place?"

 

Mama touched his shoulder gently. She looked tired. "I don't know, son. I've wished so many times . . ." She turned toward her campfire. "You'd better fetch me a little more dry wood."

 

Jeffrey heard a boyish shout and glanced about for his younger brother. Todd was romping with a brown dog that had accompanied the family as the wagon bumped its way through Arkansas. With a fleeting impatience, Jeffrey shouted, "Hush up, Todd. You'll run off any game that's within hearin' of you."

 

Todd quieted down for a minute or two but quickly forgot Jeffrey's admonition. He began playing fetch-the-stick with the dog. Jeffrey shrugged. Remaining quiet seemed too much to ask of an energetic five-year-old boy.

 

He gathered a few small branches from dead brush and broke them across his knee, carrying them back to the .re. Papa had strayed three hundred yards from the wagon. Mama raised her hand to her slat bonnet to shade her eyes from the noonday sun. She said, "Better go fetch him, son. Dinner'll be ready when you-all get back."

 

"Yes, ma'am. Papa loses all track of time."

 

He met Todd walking in from his game. Not seeing the dog, he asked, "Where's Brownie?"

 

"He got tired of chasin' a stick. He took off after a rabbit."

 

"You better get back to the wagon and wash your face and hands. It'll soon be time to eat."

 

Todd quickened his pace. He liked to play, but eating pleased him even more.

 

Jeffrey gave Papa the message. Papa sounded disappointed. "All right, I'm done here. Soon as we've finished eatin' dinner, we'll break camp and move on."

 

Jeffrey tried not to frown. Mama always said Papa knew best, even when she didn't believe it herself. "This isn't the place?"

 

"Maybe a little farther on."

 

They had not seen a soul since they left Weatherford. Jeffrey asked, "Ain't we gotten out pretty far past everybody else?"

 

"That's the way I like it. We get first pick."

 

At the wagon, Papa broke the news that they were moving on. Mama took it without comment, but Todd protested, "Brownie ain't come back. We can't just leave him."

 

Papa said, "If he don't find his way to us, we'll have to go without him."

 

Todd puckered up. Papa said sternly, "You're too big to start cryin'."

 

Todd said, "I don't ever cry."

 

Jeffrey saw the hurt in his brother's eyes. He said, "I'll go hunt for him. He may not have sense enough to follow us."

 

Papa warned, "Don't waste much time. We'll be startin' pretty soon."

 

The noonday sun bore heavily on Jeffrey's thin shoulders and sent sweat trickling down his freckled face. He never cussed in front of Papa or Mama, but he was a mile or more from them now. He stated his opinion of the wayward dog in terms he had heard his father use in addressing a team of mules. Papa often relied on profanity for its ability to relieve stress.

 

"You can stay out here and starve to death for all I care," Jeffrey shouted at the absent animal.

 

Well, no big loss. Brownie rarely played with him, preferring to rip around with Todd. Jeffrey turned and started back, his feet dragging, his steps shorter than when he had begun. He had not gone far before he heard the dog barking off to his left. He saw a moving cloud of dust and heard the drumming of hooves. Someone was pushing a band of horses in a slow lope. As wind shifted the dust, he counted a dozen or more riders.

 

He froze in midstride. They were Indians, and they were riding headlong toward the wagon camp.

 

The shock gave Jeffrey fresh strength. He broke into a run, shouting a warning. His was a boy's voice, high-pitched find too weak to carry far. Remembering terrible tales he had heard about Indian raids, he began crying. He heard a shot and recognized the sound of the rifle. Papa was serving notice that he intended to defend himself and his family.

 

Several Indians left the horse herd and circled the wagon. Papa's rifle fired once more, then a shotgun blasted. That would be Mama, pitching in. Jeffrey was close enough now to see Papa go down and to hear Mama scream before a warrior crushed her head with a club.

 

He realized that the Indians could see him if they looked in his direction. He dropped to his stomach and hid himself in the tall grass. Instinct cried out for him to rush to the wagon and try to help, but fear paralyzed him. An inner voice told him it was already too late, that he would only get himself killed.

 

He heard Todd cry out as an Indian lifted him onto his horse. The boy futilely beat the warrior with his fists. The man swung the hard handle of a rawhide quirt and struck Todd a sharp blow to the side of his head. Todd went limp. Jeffrey then lost sight of his brother and the Indian in the stirring of dust as warriors circled the wagon. He heard them shouting in celebration while they looted it of blankets and foodstuffs. They gathered up the mule team Papa had staked on grass near camp and tried to set fire to the wagon. They succeeded only in burning much of the canvas cover before wind snuffed out the blaze. They rode away, adding the mules to their band of loose horses.

 

Jeffrey lay on the ground for several minutes, trembling, fearing that some Indians might lag behind and see him. Finally, choking with fear, he forced himself to his feet and trudged to the wagon. He knew what he would surely find, but he denied it to himself. Mama and Papa must somehow have survived. They had to.

 

But they had not. Mama lay twisted on the ground, eyes open but not seeing. Her head was bloody, her scalp torn away. Wind tugged at her long skirt. Papa lay across a hot cast-iron dutch oven that sat atop live coals. His clothing smoldered, and Jeffrey smelled burning flesh. Papa too had been scalped.

 

Todd was not there.

 

Jeffrey dragged his father away from the heat and used his bare hands to beat out the slow flames that had burned holes in shirt and trousers. He dropped to his knees and let the tears flow. Body quaking, he shouted out in grief and fear and rage.

 

He lost all sense of time, crying until he was exhausted. Eventually he forced himself to his feet and began to look around, to take stock of the situation into which he had so suddenly been thrust. Mama and Papa were dead. Todd was gone, probably dead too, or he would be when the Indians grew tired of him. Of what use could a five-year-old boy be to them?

 

Flies had already found his parents' wounds. Mama had been wearing an apron. Jeffrey spread it to cover her head. He found Papa's fallen hat and laid it across his father's still face.

 

He knew there was no need to look for the rifle or the shotgun. The Indians would have taken those as prizes of the raid. He thought of the dog. It had barked at the horses, probably alerting the Indians to the wagon camp even before they saw it. Jeffrey ventured out, calling again for Brownie.

 

He found the dog a hundred yards away, dead, with two large wounds in its side. A third wound still had part of an arrow shaft in it. Evidently the Indians had tried to retrieve their arrows but had broken one off.

 

"Damn you, Brownie," Jeffrey said, "you had it comin' to you."

 

He realized then that his own life had been spared because the dog had wandered off. Otherwise he would have been in camp when the Indians struck. He moderated his tone. "I hope you caught your rabbit."

 

The family milk cow had been staked near the wagon. She lay dead, a hind leg cut off and carried away. It had been one of Jeffrey's chores to milk her twice a day. She was mean about kicking, so he did not mourn her.

 

Jeffrey could not bear to see Mama and Papa lying there on the ground. They needed to be buried. He found the shovel where it was supposed to be, strapped to the side of the wagon. The Indians had seen no need for it. He was practiced in use of the shovel. He had dug fire pits and unearthed old stumps to serve as firewood for his mother as they had moved west from Arkansas. He chose a piece of ground above the creek's high-water mark and began to dig a hole wide enough that he could bury Papa and Mama side by side, the way they had been as far back as he could remember.

 

The grave was waist deep when he heard horses. Fear fell over him again like a smothering blanket. He dropped to his stomach in the hole, certain more Indians were coming. He heard the horses stop at the camp. As men raised their voices in excitement, he recognized familiar words. These riders were not Indians. Climbing out of the hole, he waved his hat over his head, afraid the men might ride on without seeing him. He began running, stumbling toward the wagon, trying to shout but not finding his voice.

 

A couple of men raised rifles, startled by the boy's unexpected appearance. They lowered them quickly. One rider moved out to meet him, dismounting and kneeling, anxiously studying Jeffrey at his own eye level. The man was two hundred pounds of muscle and bone. His bearing indicated that he was the kind who would automatically take charge without waiting for someone else. Touching a huge hand to Jeffrey's shoulder, he demanded, "Anybody here besides you?"

 

"No, sir," Jeffrey managed, his voice breaking. "The Indians didn't see me." Guilt burned deeply as he admitted, "I hid."

 

"A good thing you did. I suppose that's your mother and father we found back yonder?"

 

Jeffrey sobbed once, then forced a measure of control. "Yes, sir. And they carried off my little brother." He felt a moment of hope. "Maybe you can catch them and make them give Todd back."

 

The big man's heavy eyebrows came together in a dark frown. "We're tryin' to catch them, but I doubt it'll do your brother any good. The minute we close with them, they generally kill any prisoners. Best we can hope for is to make them bleed for what they've done. And maybe we can get back the horses they stole on this raid."

 

Hope collapsed as quickly as it had risen. "You can't save Todd?"

 

"I'm sorry to put it to you so strong, but if they haven't already killed him, they will."

 

Jeffrey lost control and wept again. In a kindly voice the bearded man said, "You've got to face it like a man. He's gone, like your mama and daddy are gone."

 

The other men gathered around, some voicing sympathy, others demanding angrily that they keep riding. They had raiders to catch and kill. The bearded man said, "Adam, how about you and Matthew Temple stayin' here with this boy? The rest of us will see if we can get us some Indians."

 

Jeffrey said, "I want to go with you. I want to find my brother."

 

"You'd best put aside any notion of seein' your brother again. It'd just lead to fresh disappointment. You've got hurt enough already."

 

The grim-faced group of fifteen or so volunteers set off in a long trot, following the plain trail beaten out by the warriors and their stolen horses and mules. Jeffrey turned to the two men left behind. Matthew Temple had a ragged beard that once had been black but now was spotted with gray. He looked like most of the farmers Jeffrey had known back home, men used to hard work. His hips were broad but his stomach flat. He said, "Fletcher's probably right to leave us, Adam. My horse is about worn out, and yours looks little better."

 

Adam was younger, his beard short and brown, covering much of a face dark and weathered. He said, "I'd just like to be there for the fight. I lost two horses to them damned Comanches."

 

"We don't know for sure they're Comanches."

 

"I don't see that it makes any difference. They're Indians, and they'll all kill you if they get the chance. Like they done this boy's folks, and some others back yonder."

 

Matthew took a wrinkled handkerchief from a hip pocket and wiped the tears from Jeffrey's dusty face. "Son, we can't just leave your mama and daddy layin' there. We'd best be gettin' them under."

 

Jeffrey pointed to the higher ground. "I'd done started diggin' before you-all came."

 

"How were you goin' to get them all the way up there?"

 

"I'm pretty strong."

 

Matthew's expression showed he was dubious. "How old are you?"

 

"Eight, and some past."

 

"About the age my boy Henry was." With a sad look in his eyes, Matthew shook his head. "You're too young to shoulder a man's load. You ought to be playin' schoolboy games and learnin' to read and cipher. But sometimes the Lord in his wisdom throws a thunderbolt at us. Are you a God-fearin' lad?"

 

"My folks are churchgoin' people. My grandpa used to preach."

 

"Looks like we'll have to send you back to ...