Chapter Two

Joe struggled to sit up and leaned back against the wagon seat, studying the four men who stared at him.  He opened his mouth to speak, but the closest man quickly shook his head, his eyes filled with warning…or was that fear?

Looking around him, he saw that all of them wore shackles, but their shackles were chained together.  There was nothing he could see in the wagon that he could use to free himself or use as a weapon. He knew he wouldn’t be able to jump out; two men on horseback closely followed the wagon.  For the time being, he was stuck with nothing to do but wait…and think.

He winced at the pain in his ribs as much from the pain in his chest and groin from landing on the ankle shackles, locks and chains of the men who were already in the wagon.  They must have ridden for hours without a break.  He hadn’t heard any discussion from the men outside the wagon…only the sound of the horse’s hooves on the ground and the squeak and rattle of the wagon.

Suddenly, without the utterance of a word, the wagon stopped.  From the creak of leather, Joe knew the men were dismounting their horses, but still no one said a word.  Could it be they didn’t want to be heard by any outsiders?  Joe whispered to the man next to him.  “Why aren’t they talking?”

The man nervously shook his head, and pointed to his tongue.  When Joe looked back questioningly, the man tapped the arm of another prisoner sitting across from them and motioned for him to open his mouth.  What Joe saw made him turn away in revulsion.  The man’s tongue had been recently cut out.

The leader appeared at the back of the wagon.  “Get out.”

The four other men in the wagon stood so that the chain between them was in line.  As one began to step out, the next one on the chain line was right behind him.  All of them lined up immediately behind the one in front to avoid them all tangling and crashing down to the ground.  When it was Joe’s turn to climb out, he got up slowly, holding his side.  Putting his hands on the back lip of the wagon, he slowly stepped out onto a tongue, and when both his feet were together, he jumped down.

One of the men grabbed him and pushed him to the front of the line with the others, then attached a chain from his shackles to the man next to him.  “This way, you won’t be tempted to run.  You try and all these others will fall on top of you.”

“Why are you so worried about me?” asked Joe, scowling.

“These boys haven’t had anything but mine rations for better than a week.  You’re the strongest.  This way this chain gang is only as good as the weakest man.”

“Mine…what mine around here would take on slaves?”

The man laughed.  “I guess that tells you something, don’t it?”

“Alright then, where are you taking us?”

“Death Valley, boy.  There’s all kinds of mines in Death Valley.  And all kinds of Indian trouble, too.”

“The army won’t stand for it when they find what you’re doing.”

Laughing again, he turned to his companions.  “Did you hear that?  When the army finds out, they won’t stand for it.”   All of the men started laughing.  “There’s a reason we get by all those Injuns out there, boy.  We have an army escort,” he said, going from a chuckle to an all out laugh as he walked away toward his men.  “Water ‘em.  Give ‘em their bread and let ‘em take a leak. Then get ‘em back in the wagon.  We need to put another forty miles behind us before nightfall.”  He turned back to his prisoners.  “You boys should get some sleep.  Come nightfall, you’ll be walking.”