Chapter Fifteen

A scout was sent to find a suitable place for camp higher up in the mountains. They would have to go further for water and food, but they would be even more difficult to find. Everything required to make camp was carried up the steep rocks on their backs, the women carrying the weight they could right along with the men.

It was long after dark when the camp was settled, and everyone gathered for the evening meal of dried salmon and mesquite beans. Empote quatacheech spoke to the tribe as they ate. “We go tonight to watch, but we will take the knives. If the soldiers do not watch, we will go in to find the brother of Homar huwhen.”

“And when you find him, what then?” asked Adam, loudly.

“We will bring him to you and you will leave us.”

“And Chacha hoda?”

“Chacha hoda must go into the mine to free our people and your brother if he is there. When she has done her work, she may leave with you.”

Adam knew there was no point arguing about what would be done after he left. He knew this was the best he could do. Still, he felt…ashamed…dirty…at the prospect of leaving the soldiers to a violent death. Or perhaps the Aha macave. He saw no way to prevent it.

“How will I know your brother?” asked Mike.

Adam thought for a moment. “Ask him who the cook is. He’ll understand. The answer is Hop Sing.”

“Hop Sing,” she said, nodding.

They traveled to the rocks around the mines as they had before, silently on foot. Empote quatacheech positioned them as before. They watched and waited. The white slaves from the mine were kept in a flat area where they slept on the ground chained together. The soldiers patrolled the area around them as well as the entrance to the mine.

As they watched, one of the Aha macave to the south came back to Empote quatacheech and Adam. He pointed to the north where Adam could just barely make out four dark figures riding toward the mine in the moonlight. It wasn’t long before the guards heard them approach, and they all formed a line to the north of their encampment. The only soldiers that didn’t go forward were the two stationed in the mouth of the mine. When the riders stopped in front of the soldiers, Empote quatacheech signaled for Mike to enter the mine.

They watched as she deftly climbed down the rock from the top, finding handholds and footholds that could not be seen from below. She stopped just above the mine entrance, hanging on to the rock with one hand and throwing her knife with the other. When the first soldier slumped, the second one bent to see what was wrong, unsuspecting of the knife that had been thrown from above. Before he had a chance to stand back up, she threw a second knife. The soldier slumped on top of the first. She climbed down, disappearing into the dark void of the mine.

Mike searched both soldiers for keys to the chains, found them then made her way down the main tunnel. She began to worry that she wouldn’t be able to find the Aha macave slaves and Adam’s brother because there were so many tunnels off the main tunnel. She breathed a sigh of relief when she found a large chamber at the end of the main tunnel where the men were sleeping. She covered the mouth of the first man, waking him, then handed him the keys and a knife. He in turn woke the next man, passing the key along. As the Aha macave men awoke, she handed out knives. She looked across the entire group, but didn’t see a white man, so she pulled the first Aha macave aside, whispering, “White man?”

“One is here in another tunnel. But why?”

“We must free him. We will talk after.”

The Aha macave man took her to the tunnel where Joe was sleeping. She put her hand over his mouth and her knife at his neck, waking him. When Joe opened his eyes, he saw the girl and the knife and didn’t struggle. “Who is cook?” Mike asked him.

Joe creased his eyebrows for moment. “Hop Sing.”

“I have come with your brother, Adam, to free you. You must be silent.” Joe nodded and the Aha macave man unlocked his chains. “Do you know how to use this?” asked Mike, holding out a knife. Joe nodded. “Then we go.”

When all the men were unchained, they waited for Mike at the mine entrance crouching in the shadows. Joe crawled up next to her. “That’s my father and brother,” said Joe quietly, nodding toward the riders at the far side of the encampment.

She squatted low so the men on the ground below couldn’t see her and signaled to Empote quatacheech. “You are not to kill the men who are not soldiers,” she said to the Aha macave waiting behind her. She turned to Joe. “You will go to the rocks there”, she said, pointing toward Adam’s position. “You and your brother go back to our camp and prepare to leave. Tell your brother to pack the horses. Tell him to wear his gun.”

When Empote quatacheech gave the signal, the Aha macave poured out of the cave entrance and down from the surrounding mountain, taking the soldiers on the ground by surprise. Empote quatacheech had moved from their hiding place and went down the mountain with his men.

Joe did as he was told, running to the rocks at the west and climbing until he was grabbed by Adam and pulled into the shadows.

Adam wrapped his hand around Joe’s neck, looking at his eyes. “Joe?”

“I’m alright, Adam. She said to go back to the horses and get them packed.”

Mike waited until the fighting began, skirting along the sides of the mountains until she was even with Ben and Hoss who were confused at what was taking place, their horses barely in control. Mike ran to Ben’s horse, taking the reins. “I am Mike Dutton. Follow me,” she yelled above the calls of the Indians and the cries of dying men. She ran ahead of them, turning and motioning them to follow. Ben turned his horse, yelling for Hoss and the two hands to follow. They galloped toward her as she ran to the cover of the rocks. “We must go quickly,” she said, swinging up on Ben’s horse behind him, pointing the way.

Adam and Joe were running toward the camp when they heard the approaching horses and ducked behind rocks until the horses were closer. Seeing his father, Adam climbed up on top of the rock and waved him down. “Pa, I don’t have time to explain. We have to go.”

Mike jumped down from Ben’s horse, and Adam grabbed her arm. “Where are you going?”

“I must help my people,” she said, trying to pull away.

“You’re not going back. We need your help to get out of here.”

“You do not need my help,” she shouted, struggling against his grip. “You know the way.”

“Help me get them back to the camp. Then we’ll both come back.”

Joe climbed up behind Ben. The ranch hands doubled up on one horse, and Adam hauled Mike, kicking and struggling, up on the last horse and followed her up, sitting behind her and holding her in the saddle.

When they arrived at camp, Mike spoke to the women explaining the white men in their camp. “You must stay at my hut. If you move away from here, they will kill you.”

“Wait, where are you going?” asked Ben anxiously.

“Pa, stay here. We have to help if we can.”

Ben grabbed Adam’s arm. “The only thing you have to do is leave with us. You’re not going back there.”

Adam shrugged his father’s hand away. “I can’t leave them, Pa,” he said, looking intently into his father’s eyes.

Ben grudgingly nodded, recognizing that look on Adam’s face that said he was doing this no matter what his father had to say. Adam went into the hut, pulling his gun out of the basket, and he and Mike climbed back down from the camp to the trail through the canyons.

When they arrived at the mine, they climbed back up on the precipice where Empote quatacheech and Adam had been hiding, looking down into the encampment. Mike gasped at the bloody scene, bodies of both Indian and soldier littering the encampment floor. There were still screams of the soldiers as they felt the Aha macave knife mixed in with the grunts of the Aha macave falling from the bullets of the soldier’s guns. In the end, there were more soldiers standing than Aha macave. Adam and Mike watched as the few Aha macave that remained began to climb the rocks to escape.

“Stay here,” Adam said as he climbed down the rock face. He motioned for the remaining Aha macave to come to him. As he pointed them up the rock, he drew his gun ready to defend them if the soldiers gave chase. When he climbed up behind them, he turned around and looked down at the encampment. He saw no more Aha macave who were alive. “There’s nothing more to do here,” said Adam. “Let’s get back to the camp.” Adam stood to leave and Mike reluctantly followed.