Chapter Seven

A FOLLOWER • KNIFE FIGHT • INTRODUCTIONS

BEATRICE AND Lionel rode north for most of the afternoon, edging toward the west and the afternoon sun. Beatrice didn’t say much, so they rode in silence, pondering what Big Bull had said about bringing trouble down onto their grandfather. Lionel knew that they hadn’t eaten in over a day and a half now, and that Big Bull was right; another night or two out in the cold and they would more than likely end up like the Frozen Man.

Lionel noticed that Beatrice looked behind them more frequently than she had before.

“What is it, Beatrice?” Lionel asked, following her gaze to the deserted horizon.

“I think somebody is following us.” Beatrice pulled Ulysses around, and they made a wide circle back in the direction they had just come. They rode to a low depression in the rolling hills and were soon wading through the four feet of snow that the wind had swept into this little wash. Beatrice pulled up on the horse and slipped silently from his back.

“You stay here. If you hear anything, don’t wait for me. You ride hard and don’t stop till you hit the river. You understand?”

“Don’t wait? where are you going, Beatrice?” But Beatrice was gone.

Lionel sat with his hands on the warmth of Ulysses’s flanks. He felt like crying, but thought that Beatrice hadn’t cried, and she was just as hungry, just as cold, and she sure hadn’t cried when the man with the patch cracked her head on the ice or when the priest ripped her ear.

Lionel circled Ulysses around to face the mountains that loomed in the distance. They were so big they seemed to stand right before them, but Lionel knew better. If that was where they were going, they were in for a long ride.

Suddenly Ulysses’s ears shot back. He flared his nostrils.

“What is it? You hear something?” Then Lionel heard it too. It sounded like someone or something was moving in the snow at the top of the gully.

“Beatrice? Beatrice, is that you?” Lionel was shivering.

He turned the horse and saw someone running straight at him. The movement startled Ulysses, who jumped sideways and out from underneath Lionel. Lionel landed in the snow. This time when he looked up to the top of the gully he could see Beatrice. She was closing in on the runner.

“Help! Help!” the runner screamed, but there was no one to come to his aid. Beatrice tackled the runner, and the two rolled to the bottom of the gully, landing in a heap next to Lionel.

“Get offa me you no-good lunatic!” the runner screamed.

Lionel got up and brushed the snow from his face. He recognized the voice. It belonged to Corn Poe Boss Ribs.

“Free my hands, I dare ya!” Corn Poe screeched. “Free my hands less’n you’re afraid, afraid to get a whoopin’ you’ll be hard-pressed to ever forget!”

Beatrice rolled Corn Poe onto his stomach and shoved his face in the snow.

“What business do ya have followin’ us?”

Beatrice demanded. “Get offa me you chicken-livered jack—” Beatrice interrupted Corn Poe by shoving his face deeper into the snow.

“You’re gonna freeze me eyeballs right out of my head, you idjit!” Corn Poe’s muffled cries continued. Beatrice rolled him back over. “Why are you following us?”

“I’ll show you if ya just let me up.”

Corn Poe’s face was red and pieces of ice dripped from his hair, mixing with the steady stream of tears that now poured from his eyes.

“Come on, let me up and I’ll show ya,” he cried. Beatrice pulled him to sit in the snow. “Well, come on, then,” Beatrice said. Corn Poe reached into his jacket and dug around.

Lionel saw Corn Poe’s hand flash from his pocket and watched as the little boy scrambled to his feet like a madman. He held a small knife out in front of him.

“I’ll teach ya to mess with Corn Poe Boss Ribs,” he proclaimed and jabbed the knife at Beatrice. Beatrice moved slightly, and Corn Poe missed.

He stabbed with the knife again, and Beatrice caught his wrist. with little effort, Beatrice knocked the knife from Corn Poe’s hand and shoved him back into the snow. Corn Poe collapsed in a pile of tears. He had trouble catching his breath.

“You’re lucky I’m all wet and sluggish or you’d be dead!” Corn Poe carried on, reaching back into his coat.

This prompted Beatrice to kick him, but that didn’t stop Corn Poe, and his hand now emerged holding the severed half of a large hambone. The boy is going to try to kill Beatrice with a hambone, Lionel thought. He couldn’t kill her with a knife, and now he is going to try a hambone. Beatrice and Lionel stepped back, prepared for Corn Poe’s next move, but it didn’t come.

“I was just trying to help. I followed to give ya this here ham, and then I got lost and now I can’t get back, and ya shoved me in the snow!”

Beatrice sat back on her legs, breathing heavily. “You best keep your voice down.”

“Why did ya shove me in the snow? why?” blubbered Corn Poe. “I’m freezing!”

“Hell, you was trying to kill us,” Lionel said.

“Not till this jackass tackled me in the snow!”

Beatrice stood up and offered her hand to Corn Poe. Corn Poe took it, and Beatrice pulled him to his feet.

“I’m sorry I tackled you in the snow,” Beatrice said.

Corn Poe caught his breath. “I’m sorry I tried to kill ya with my folding knife,” he said, holding the hambone out to Beatrice. “I brought this all that way for ya.”

Beatrice nodded toward Lionel, and Corn Poe handed him the hambone. “I figured you was hungry.”

Lionel bit into the salty cold pork and thought that he had never tasted anything so good in all his life. He took a few bites and then handed it to Beatrice, who did the same.

“Thank you,” Beatrice said.

The three stood in the snow passing the ham between them.

“What about you? Ya suddenly gone mute or something?” Corn Poe asked, ripping at the last bit of meat that clung to the now naked bone.

“My name is Lionel. Beatrice is my sister.”

“Beatrice? Your sister?” Corn Poe stopped chewing. “I’d never known that in all them clothes. I hope my pa don’t get wind of it. Knocked down by a girl! He’ll skin me alive!

“Well, girl or no girl, you got lucky on that go-round,” Corn Poe went on between his sporadic gnaws. “Like I was sayin’, my name’s Corn Poe Boss Ribs. That there was our place back in the valley. My father would kill me if he knew I gave you that ham hock. He hates Injuns, despitin’ the fact that he is one.”

Corn Poe handed the bone back to Lionel. “But, I must confess, I don’t care much how mad he gets. I felt like stretchin’ my legs anyhow.”

“Well, thanks,” Beatrice said again as she walked over to calm Ulysses. “I guess for tonight, Corn Poe, you best be coming with us. otherwise you’ll freeze.”

“Freeze? Hell, I’m half frozed as it is.”

Beatrice gave Corn Poe back his knife and helped him and Lionel up onto the horse. “Besides, I’d bet you’d be lost before we cleared the next hill,” Beatrice teased as she swung up behind them.

“Now, what’s that supposed to mean?” Corn Poe shot back.

Beatrice ignored him, and the three rode out of the gully, resuming their course toward the river.