Huck Out West(36)

He grunted, twitched around at the others, ducked his head, and leaned close. He smelt like something dead, like he’d already joined that big party that was a-waiting to happen. “You recollect that saucy jig dancer sung all them smutty songs?” he growled.

“The Irish girl with the red hair?”

“Yup, that’s her. Was. The Whore of Babylon got inside the pore thing and it was my Christian duty t’free her up, warn’t it? She had friends who was most prob’bly also infested with demons, and purty soon they was legionin’ up agin me, sayin’ I was a heartlust murderer, when I was only doin’ the best I could to save her black soul from etarnal dangnation. So they didn’t give me no choice, I was obleeged to leave them parts in a hurry.” He twitched his shoulders and thrust up his horny paw to ask for two more, but I shook my head at the barkeep. Charlie was likely disappointed, but his pin dots warn’t very expressive. “So, who you workin’ for now, Huckerbelly?”

“Whoever’ll hire me.”

Charlie stuffed a wad of chaw into his cheeks. “Still wranglin’ hosses?”

“Sure.”

“The general’s in a fort a-near here now and I heerd tell he was a-lookin’ for scouts and wranglers.”

“You mean General Hard Ass? Near here?”

“That ain’t his name, but, yes, that’s the cocky SOB I mean, and I mean that complimentry. He took over a fort up here a coupla years back, and he’s killt slathers a injuns so’s to keep the emigrant wagons rollin’ through. Killin’ injuns is a gift he’s got. He stopped in for a quick snort one day and he says some injun he’s got workin’ for him told him you was on your way here.” Charlie let fly a gob of chaw in the generl direction of the spittoon. “Cain’t trust no dumb injun a course. But if I seen you, I’m obleeged to tell you he might have work for you.”

I had to get this news to Eeteh and the tribe, so I give Charlie the rest a my drink, good-byed him quickly, and had just went to settle up for the whisky and tobacco, when I seen a pretty lady, dressed ever so grand, coming towards the saloon’s swinging doors. I blinked twice to be sure. Yes, it was Becky Thatcher! I grabbed up my change and goods, but by the time I reached the doors, she was gone. Maybe she seen me, maybe not. She warn’t so schoolgirl-looking like before, but even fancied up, you could see she was still a St. Petersburg girl. So, if she’s out here, I allowed, Tom Sawyer must be, too, and I was most roused up by this possibleness. Her classy outfit made me think Tom’d struck it rich. I judged he was trying to find me, but didn’t know I was traveling with natives. I couldn’t hardly wait to spread him my adventures.

When I got back and told Eeteh about the general, he cussed in Lakota and says it was that brother that my horse throwed in the cactus. He was the one done the scouting for the tribe and must a lied about Long Hair. Eeteh reckoned his brother was trying to land me in trouble with the general, so I should stay in the camp till he found out more.

But I was desperate to see Tom again, I’d been dancing about ever since I seen Becky, so I pulled my hat down over my eyes and rode Tongo back into town looking for them. I didn’t find nuther one. Who I found—or who found me—was General Hard Ass. Me and Tongo was resting by a stream, cooling off from the midday heat and calculating where to look next, when I smelt the cinnamon. I looked up and there was the general setting his horse over me, fitted out proud in his red neckerchief and his pressed uniform with its shiny brass buttons and epolets. “Well, well,” he says. He was sporting a broad-brimmed cream-colored slouch hat with the brim turned up on one side and fastened to the crown so’s he could sight his rifle whilst galloping along. His rifle was slung across his lap and he warn’t hiding it. “Our deserter.”

“I ain’t a deserter,” I says. I got to my feet and so did Tongo. “Sir.” He was still setting a mile above me, his yaller hair curling over his shoulders. “I ain’t never been a soldier. I’m just a plain cowboy wrangler and I only set out to sign on another cattle drive, like I said I’d do. I asked Charlie to tell you.”

“If you work for the army, son, you’re IN the army.”

“But . . . well . . .” I had to think up something fast but my brain was froze. I was scared for me, but more for Tongo. Seeing that rifle resting there made me think about Star and how his days ended, which I knowed was how he wanted me to think. We was in trouble. “I was in trouble, sir,” I says, but I didn’t know yet what trouble I meant. I couldn’t use Charlie’s story, because it was likely the general already heard it. He was staring down on me, waiting for more. “There was a man wanted to kill me.”

“What for?”

“He kept his lady hog-tied in a covered ammunition wagon and give her wrathful hidings there. He thought I’d been messing with her.”

“Were you?”

“No, sir. Not exactly. I was only trying to help the lady in her distressidness.” The general smiled benignly. “She was sweet but she had a dirty mouth. When the man started shooting, I lit out.”

“I see. You disappointed me, Finn. I had high hopes for you. But I can understand how circumstances might have interfered with your judgment.” I was dressed mostly in cowboy clothes to do the shopping, but I was wearing my beaded buckskin shirt and had my bear-claw neckless on for luck, and the look he was giving them things warn’t a friendly one. “But you can redeem yourself. You’re traveling with Indians. I assume you were captured while running away. No white man would voluntarily live with savages.”