Jason was riding through the country one day when he came upon a disturbing sight.  Two people – a man and woman, were tied to pegs.  The one laid right across from each other as the sun burned down on them.  Jason immediately hurried forward to help them.  Seeing that the woman was still alive, he cut her loose.  As he was putting his knife back in its pouch, the woman bolted up and bit his hand.

 

Gently, he assured her he wasn’t going to hurt her, but she continued to struggle.  Finally, she weakened and settled down.  Jason was puzzled.  He lifted the girl up into his arms and carried her under a nearby tree where he preceded to put cold water on her face and help her drink. 

 

He didn’t know it, but a cowboy was watching up the hill.

 

“Who did this to you?” Jason asked softly as he held her head up. 

 

“Kilo’s dead,” the woman muttered before laying down and passing out.  As Jason went to make her more comfortable, he turned to see the cowboy about to hit him with the butt of his rifle.  Jason dodged, then punched the cowboy.  He landed on the ground.

 

He lifted the man to his feet by his shirt.  “Who are you?” Jason demanded.

 

“Leave me alone!”

 

“What do you know about this girl?”

 

“Nothing.” 

 

SMACK!  “Answer me,” Jason demanded.

 

“You got no right to horn in,” the man declared.  “She belongs to me!”  Jason asked what he meant.  “She’s my squaw!”

 

“Did you do this to her?”

 

“That ain’t your concern!” the man answered.

 

SMACK!  “Did you?” Jason asked through clinched teeth.

 

“We was learning her a lesson.”  Jason wanted to know who ‘we’ were.  “My brothers and me.”  Jason wondered where his brothers were now.  “You’ll find out soon enough if I don’t come back with that squaw,” he answered with an evil grin.

 

“Get over there,” Jason demanded as he drew his gun and cocked it.  “MOVE!”

 

That night, Jason had the woman and man at a camp fire.  He made her a warm drink and told her to drink it.  She asked him if he buried Kilo.  He told her he buried him out in the clearing.  “Why do you risk your life for me?” she suddenly asked.

 

“You needed help.  I happened to be the first one that came along.”

 

“Your kind does not help the Indian,” the woman argued.

 

“That’s not true,” Jason assured her softly.  “And you are not an Indian.”  She admitted that her mother and father weren’t, but she’d always lived with the Kiowa’s.  “They call me White Fawn.”  Jason asked her who Kilo was.  “He was my blood brother.  Ten days ago, I was bathing in the creek near my village.   The wolfers came and carried me away.”

 

“Wolfers?”

 

“That one and two others,” White Fawn nodded toward the man across the way.  The man laughed at her.  “They trap wolves for other white men.  They brought me great shame.”  Jason realized Kilo had come after her.  “Last night while they were asleep, he found me.  We were almost away and they wakened and saw us and…” She was becoming upset.  Jason stopped her, assuring he knew what happened.

 

As they talked, the captured wolfer started easing away.  He picked up a rock and hid it behind him. 

 

“They will kill you,” White Fawn warned.

 

“Try and get some rest,” Jason urged her softly. 

 

Jason stood and walked over to the wolfer under the tree.  “Your brothers are a long time coming.”  He assured Jason they’d be there.  “Well good,” Jason declared.  “The Sheriff in Carson City will be glad to see all three of ya.”  Jason glared at him.

 

Later that night, the wolfer worked on freeing the ropes on his hands as Jason napped under a nearby tree.  White Fawn laid next to him.  The wolfer finally got his hands free and untied his feet.  He was happy, thinking now he could make his escape as Jason slept on.  He snuck over to the horses and started away.  The horse sneezed suddenly, and Jason woke up.  The wolfer took off on the horse.  Jason shot, but missed him.

 

“He will bring the others,” White Fawn feared.

 

Jason kneeled in front of her.  “White Fawn, are you well enough to ride?”  She told him yes.  “It’ll be light soon.  If we start now, we’ll get a good start.”  She wanted him to take her to her people, but Jason thought it was too long a ride.  “Garden City is closer.  I can find a doctor there.”

 

“No please!  Take me to my home,” White Fawn begged.

 

“You’re not strong enough to ride that far.”

 

“I am!” she declared as she stood up and glared at him. 

 

Jason realized how important it was to her to get back.  “Alright, White Fawn.  I’ll take you to your village.”

 

The wolfer Jason had caught was named Les.  Les rode back to the camp and woke up his brothers, Clyde and Jud.  They were pretty out of it and it took some doing to wake them up.    He poured some cold coffee on Clyde.  That got him up, alright.  He jumped up in surprise, drew his gun, and turned around.  “You darn fool kid!”  He grumbled.  “You just bought yourself a fight.”  He punched Les hard.  Les fell over Jud, who was mad that he woke him up and  held him so Clyde could slap him around.  “You never come here in the middle of the night rousting us out of bed.”  Clyde said this during slaps.  “Now, say you’re sorry.  Say it!”

 

“I’m sorry.  I’m sorry!” Les cried.    Then they noticed Les’s arm was injured.  Clyde demanded to know what happened to his arm.

 

“I could have been dead for all you know!  He shot me, that’s what happened,” Les answered.  Les wondered why they hadn’t come looking for him.  Jud figured he was honeymooning with his squaw.

 

“Where is she anyways?” Clyde asked.

 

“He’s got her, and he’s mothering her like an old hen,” Les answered.  Clyde ordered Les to start explaining plainer.  “When I got back there, he’d done untied her, and he won’t let her go.”  Jud asked him if he’d told Jason she was his squaw.  “Yea I told him, but he don’t have no respect for another man’s woman.  You know what he was gonna do?  He was gonna take me in to see the Sheriff!”

 

“What kind of crazy animal is he?” Clyde asked.    Les said they needed to go looking for them.

 

Jason and White Fawn were traveling.  They came up on a cave, and Jason suggested they stop and rest, but she begged him to go on.  “You can’t keep pushing yourself.  We better stop while you have the chance,” Jason suggested sternly.

 

Little did he know the wolfers were on a hill watching them. They watched as he led his horse into the cave.  Jason had fetched some water for her.  He told her to drink some while she could.  The brothers were at the mouth of the cave now.  Clyde told Jud to get the horses out of sight, then get up on the hill and cover them.  He and Les would go take them.  “Don’t you be shootin’ my squaw, boy,” Les said.

 

Jason gave White Fawn the gun.  He had seen some fresh trees and wanted to scout around them for fresh water.  White Fan took the gun.  He told her to use it if she had to. 

 

Jason cautiously started out of the cave, looking around to make sure nobody was there.  Suddenly, a shot rang out.  He stepped back behind the rock.  Jason shot Jud.

 

A shootout erupted.  Jud cried out for Clyde to help him.  He’d been hit.  Jason told White Fawn to stay back while the shooting was going on.  Clyde told Les to keep shooting.  He was going to fetch Jud.  He was successful and they went back  behind the rock.

 

Jason ran out of bullets.  He went back into the cave and looked in his saddle bags.  There weren’t very man left.  Jason went to check on White Fawn.  She had fainted.

 

Clyde announced Jud was dead.  “That no good blood-sucking coyote!”  Les declared.  “First he takes my squaw, and then he kinks my arm, and now he kills my brother.  I figured he’s done lived long enough.  I reckon it’s time we go down there and get him!”  He started to go, but Clyde grabbed him.

 

“Just settle down before you get your head shot off,” Clyde demanded.  “We’ll get him.”  Clyde had a plan. 

 

White Fawn and Jason were hiding out in the cave.  “It shames me to be weak,” she said.

 

“After what you’ve been through?” Jason questioned.  “There’s no shame to faint.”

 

“I brought you great danger.”

 

“No you.  The wolfers,” Jason assured her with a smile.

 

“I did not know a white man could be so brave.  You are much like Young Hawk.”  Jason wondered who he was.  She announced she was to be his wife.

 

It was night again.  Clyde was ready to make his move.  He told Les to stay put and not make any noise.  Jason had left the cave in search of more water for White Fawn.  He made it to a water hole.  Clyde saw him there and came up to him.  He fired, barely missing Jason. 

 

Jason looked up as Clyde pointed the rifle at him.  “Just sit right there,” Clyde ordered.  “You killed my brother.”  He walked toward Jason.  Jason jumped up, trying to grab his rifle, but Clyde punched him and knocked him to the ground.  Clyde pulled out his knife.  “Now I’m going to carve his initials on your hide.”  Jason kicked him.  They both stood and started fighting.  Clyde tried to get him with the knife while Jason avoided it.  Finally, Jason punched Clyde and shoved him to the ground.  Jason and Clyde struggled with the knife.  Jason finally managed to stab him.

 

Les made his way to the cave.  White Fawn heard someone and called out for Jason.  Les smiled at her.  “He’s dead, honey.  Clyde killed him.”  He walked toward her.  White Fawn started backing away from him.  Clyde put his rifle down and asked her to put the gun down, but she cocked it.  “Don’t do that,” Les said softly.  “It’s liable to go off like that.”  He smiled at her.  “I’m gonna take you home with me.  I’m  gonna be good to you, honey.” 

 

BANG!  She shot him.  He fell to the ground.  Jason had been grabbing for the canteen when he heard the shot.  He raced for the cave.  Entering, he found Les dead.  She told Jason she was okay.  “He told me you were dead,” she cried as she collapsed in his arms and cried.

 

The next morning, Jason found his horse.  While he had left to saddle his horse, an Indian cried out and leapt out at him.  Then another and another.  He was surrounded by Indians.  White Fawn ran out, begging them to stop as a knife was at his throat.  Jason fought against the hand that held the knife as White Fawn talked to the man in their native tongue.  She was obviously begging him.  The Indian ceased his fighting and straightened up.  He helped Jason to his feet.

 

“They found Kilo’s body.  They followed our tracks here,” White Fawn explained.  “This is Young Hawk.  He will take me home now.”

 

Jason was a bit disappointed to hear that.  “I thought…after our talk, you’d be going back to your own people.”

 

“Perhaps you are right.  Perhaps I should live in the world where I was born.  She spoke to Young Hawk in his native tongue.  Then she turned back to Jason.  “He said I must do what is in my heart.

 

“What is in your heart?”

 

“I am what I have been for the past fifteen years.  I cannot change in one day,” she answered.  “Even for you who are wise.  My heart draws me to Young Hawk.”

 

“Well, your heart is a lot wiser than I am,” Jason stated.

 

“Does it have courage?” she asked.

 

“Maybe enough to bring two worlds together.”  Jason said goodbye to them and watched them leave.