05-04-2018, 01:20 PM
I was drifting down the Red River one lazy summer day in 1853, trawling for catfish and puffing on a peace pipe given to me by a Muscogee chief whom I had rescued from a wild boar attack in western Arkansas some years prior.
As I floated along, I saw a lone rider on the river bank. The rider was dressed as an Indian princess in a tight open-back buckskin dress that could've been a few inches longer, but I was rather appreciative of the fact that it wasn't. She was bedecked with feathers and seashell necklaces, and wore a crown of daisies. But this rider was no Indian squaw. It was a white woman.
I was about to hail the rider when two rough-looking men emerged from the woods and slipped up on her from behind. One man seized her arms, the other her ankles. She tried to protest, but the varmint who had her by the arms muzzled her with his big, dirty palm.
I hadn't a rifle, only a shotgun. If I shot at the men, I'd surely hit the woman too. If I fired a warning shot, the men would get the draw on me, and me and the woman would both be goners. The men hauled the struggling woman back into the woods. I had to think of something quick-like.
As I floated along, I saw a lone rider on the river bank. The rider was dressed as an Indian princess in a tight open-back buckskin dress that could've been a few inches longer, but I was rather appreciative of the fact that it wasn't. She was bedecked with feathers and seashell necklaces, and wore a crown of daisies. But this rider was no Indian squaw. It was a white woman.
I was about to hail the rider when two rough-looking men emerged from the woods and slipped up on her from behind. One man seized her arms, the other her ankles. She tried to protest, but the varmint who had her by the arms muzzled her with his big, dirty palm.
I hadn't a rifle, only a shotgun. If I shot at the men, I'd surely hit the woman too. If I fired a warning shot, the men would get the draw on me, and me and the woman would both be goners. The men hauled the struggling woman back into the woods. I had to think of something quick-like.
