Doc Ch. 15

Grandpa cackled again, "Oh, I can almost guarantee he will! Like me, he'll think it is just the perfect joke to play on the White Eyes! He might not claim he found it in the Bad Lands, but you can be damn sure he'll say they found it in some place that he considers totally useless and at the same time make the miners work their butts off getting there. Hee! Hee! I love it! I pure-dee love it!"

I could see that the boys were pretty excited over finding all that gold. I mentioned it to Grandpa, and we acted quickly to prevent the boys from telling about the gold in their enthusiasm.

"Listen up, boys. You all can't tell anybody about this, understand? If the news gets out that we found gold on our land, it will soon be overrun with miners, cutthroats, and thieves. They would take over our ranch no matter how much we tried to stop them. You don't want the bad men like we saw in town out here trying to hurt your mothers, do you? We must keep the gold a secret so the bad guys don't come here and hurt us or the ones we love. We will only use it to buy supplies for our Indian family and friends."

Four frightened lads looked at us with big eyes when we described what would happen if they told. They all shook their heads no when I asked them if they wanted the bad men to hurt their mothers. They all remembered what happened in town just a few days ago. They all, even four-year-old Jake, seemed to understand the importance of secrecy and what would happen if word got out. They gave their word of honor that it would remain a secret, even from the rest of the family.

Standing Bear spoke for all of them, and my heart fairly burst with pride at his words. "The sons of Hawk and Two Lives and our cousins give our word as warriors we will never tell of this thing."

I swallowed the lump in my throat and closed the subject. I diverted talk to our original purpose.

"Good! That's settled! Now! We need to do a little hunting. That's what we came out here for in the first place! Uncle Henry, what do you suggest we go for?"

"Well, around here there's quite a selection. There's quite a few white tail deer. I've also run across a few elk. And occasionally there's a bear or two. However, since we have the boys with us, I don't think we should go for bear. It's too hard to hunt them without bait or hounds and someone may get hurt."

Grandpa winked at me to indicate he was never serious about hunting bears today. I had already figured he had been shining the boys on to give them something to talk about their first day out.

He finished his spiel with, "I'd say let's see if we can bag a couple deer or maybe an elk. It shouldn't take us too long. On the other side of that hill yonder is a pasture that the last time I was here was just full of rabbits. We can let the boys have a little fun while they get some practice with the rifles."

"That sounds good to me, Uncle Hank. Let's leave the boys here with the horses while we check just over that rise to see if we can spot a deer or two. When I was a young lad just starting to hunt, that was always a good spot for deer."

I turned to the boys and instructed them, "If you hear us shoot, then three shots close together, that means that we need you. That's when you need to bring the horses to us."

We left the boys holding the horses while Grandpa and I moved cautiously toward the little rise I had indicated. We hadn't gone 200 yards when Grandpa got my attention. He had spotted two young bucks with eight young does.

We snuck up as close as we dared, then we quietly laid down. Each of us selected one of the two larger does and took aim. We selected the does for harvesting because of the large local doe population and it was late in the season so we wouldn't be orphaning any fawns. When we were both ready, Grandpa nodded his head. We fired almost simultaneously, dropping both deer.

We were still close enough to the boys that we didn't need to fire the three shots for help. I just turned around and yelled. Soon the boys were there with the horses. Then it was lesson time again. This time it was how to dress out wild game to keep from spoiling the meat. When that was done, the carcasses had to be loaded on the pack horses.

We could tell that the boys really weren't having a whole lot of fun. For young boys, holding the horses while the elders did the actual hunting, and then the grunt work of field dressing and loading the carcasses was more work than fun. They may be necessary skills to learn, but young people also need something engaging to hold their interest.

It was the boys' turn now. After all, the purpose for hunting today was not only to teach them the required skills, but to give them an opportunity to practice those skills. We headed over the next hill to that pasture Grandpa had mentioned so the boys could try their luck at shooting a few rabbits. When we got there it was plain that Grandpa was right -- the rabbits were just as thick as he claimed.

By this time, the boys were getting very anxious to try out the rifles. Grandpa and I each took one of the older boys and started to teach them how to shoot. We showed them how to aim, let most of the air out of their lungs then hold their breath to steady their aim, and then slowly squeeze the trigger. They both missed on their first shot, but surprisingly Standing Bear shot one in the neck on his second shot and Brad killed one on his third. They were both very excited that they'd made their first kill.

After we retrieved their kills, we showed them how to skin and clean them. They were all ready to try again, but we could see that Davy and Jake were so anxious to try to shoot a rabbit they were practically begging. So I said it was their turn.

They were both kind of small so Grandpa and I had to help them. The rifles were a little heavy for their small bodies to hold up by themselves. With our help, they both hit a rabbit on their first try. Of course, this got them real excited. They insisted that they were big enough to help clean those rabbits. After all, I had said, "If you shoot it, you clean it."

We stayed there for another couple hours while the boys had a blast seeing who could kill the most rabbits. Grandpa and I kept a close eye on the boys, ensuring they acted safely so they didn't get hurt or shoot each other.

As the boys were having their fun, I remembered the Baby LeMat pistol still in my medical bag hanging from one of the pack horses. Thinking to have some fun of my own, I fetched the pistol and the ammo that came with it. I thought I would give it a try to see how it worked with all nine rounds of the cylinder plus the center shotgun barrel loaded.

I aimed at a rabbit about 30 feet away and let go with a shotgun barrel. Needless to say there wasn't much left of that rabbit but some bloody chunks of fur. Talk about a little overkill! I took careful aim at another rabbit about 40 feet away and fired one of the main rounds. I hit it in the head, blowing it clear off.

It was obvious this was not meant as a hunting weapon. Rather than destroy and waste more meat, I fired the remaining eight rounds into a stump from about 40 feet. I killed the inoffensive stump quite dead all eight times... I was pleasantly surprised at the accuracy of the weapon.

Seeing as it was starting to get late, we decided to head back to the ranch. Unfortunately for my plans, the day was pretty well shot. I might not have got started on the wagons like I planned, but we had still accomplished a lot.

We had mined enough gold to easily keep Red Cloud's camp well supplied for the winter and also divert the gold rush from here to some other less useful location. The boys had learned the basics of hunting and shooting and how to properly care for their kills. And Grandpa and I had spent some quality time with those boys doing that thing that was the butt of many pc jokes in my own time -- male bonding.

It was almost supper time by the time we got back. We had just enough time to hang the two deer and the boys' rabbits in one of the sheds, and get washed up before dinner was ready. After dinner, we sat around and talked about our day.

Most of the talk was Standing Bear describing to his mother how he was becoming a hunter. He bragged to her how he killed a large rabbit the second time he ever shot a rifle and assured her he was becoming a better shot all the time. I was delighted to finally see this shy young boy finally talking animatedly.

After a couple hours, everybody was starting to yawn and stretch. It had been a long hard day for all of us. It was time for bed. Nobody was in the mood for much lovemaking. All my ladies just seemed to want to cuddle up to me and fall asleep using me for a pillow. How could I find fault with that arrangement? I felt like a sultan of araby as I drifted off to dreamless sleep with my honeys all cuddled warmly about me.