"It"s safe now," Levi Pope said quietly, standing up.
Raoul pushed himself to his feet. His legs were shaking so hard he could barely stand. He looked around and saw militiamen wading across to the island from the east bank of the Mississippi.
The men who had been skirmishing in the forest north of the Bad Axe must have seen the fighting on the island.
Too dazed even to feel happy, Raoul stood taking long breaths and watched the militiamen come.
He had never in his life needed a drink more than he did now, and he had forgotten to bring any whiskey with him.
The southern tip of the island was soon crowded with riflemen. Raoul"s three dead were stretched out under blankets, and a burly horse doctor from the mining country was bandaging the leg of the man with the tomahawk wound.
"Colonel Henry Dodge," said a tall, whip-lean officer wearing a bicorn hat. He shook hands with Raoul. "We"re almost neighbors. I"m from Dodgeville settlement, just a little ways north of Galena."
"I"m d.a.m.ned glad you came over, Colonel," said Raoul, feeling like a fool to have gotten himself trapped. "The Sauk still seem to have a power of fighting men left."
"Glad you saved a few for us. There were only about two dozen redskins on the north side of the Bad Axe. They let us see them to draw us away, I guess, from the main body hiding out here. But the way you were blasting this island with grape, I was afraid we"d have nothing to do but bury Indians. Or pieces of them."
Dodge ordered his men to spread out in two lines, one behind the other, across the width of the island. Raoul positioned his little party in the center of the foremost line.
"Advance, my brave Suckers!" Dodge called, and the men laughed at the nickname for Illinoisians. Holding up a long cavalry saber, Dodge led the militia line, bayonets leveled, into the broken trees.
Raoul looked downriver for the _Victory_. She had dropped a wooden ramp to the riverbank, and blue-uniformed regulars were boarding. When they got here there would be enough soldiers on the island to wipe out the Indians ten times over.
That would be Zachary Taylor"s outfit, from Fort Crawford. Raoul had heard that the five hundred Federal troops sent from the East had been decimated by cholera, though their commander, Winfield Scott, was still on the way here.
Raoul turned and pushed forward, stumbling over tree trunks, shoving branches out of the way with his rifle, muscles rigid against the arrow he feared would come whistling out of the gloomy shadows ahead. He saw no living Indians, but many mangled corpses. He tripped over a bare, brown severed leg. A moccasin, flaps decorated with undulating red, white and black beadwork, was still on the foot.
Three Indians, swinging tomahawks and war clubs, sprang out from behind a pile of grape-blasted birch trees. Raoul and the men flanking him started shooting. The Indians were riddled before they got within ten feet.
Raoul was sure he"d killed one of the warriors. He went to the body, drew his Bowie knife and gripped the long black scalplock. He carved a circle with the sharp point in the shaved skin around the scalplock.
White bone showed through when he pulled the patch of skin loose, the round spot quickly filling with blood.
The scalplock was long enough to let him tie it around his belt. The hair felt coa.r.s.er than a white man"s.
They pressed on into the forest, again and again meeting desperate little bands of red men, who rushed them only to be felled by a hail of lead b.a.l.l.s. Raoul heard the constant banging of many rifles going off in other parts of the forest.
And sometimes he heard the high screams of women and children. After the screams, silence.
Raoul smiled to himself. This was how he wanted it. No prisoners.
Killing no longer seemed dangerous. It no longer felt like sport. It became simply work through the day"s heat. It was tiring work, but good.
With some surprise Raoul realized that the line of troops had swept most of the island and were now approaching the north end. He could see Indians up ahead through the trees. This might well be the last of them.
Eagerly, rifle ready, he rushed forward.
He burst into a clearing and found himself facing a half circle of nearly a dozen bucks, their shaved scalps and bare chests gleaming with sweat. Behind them cowered a pack of squaws and children.
The warriors shouted at Raoul and his men and beckoned to them. Right in the center was one man much taller than the rest, with the red and white feathers of a brave tied into his scalplock. Whatever insults or challenges he was uttering, he looked Raoul right in the eye and shouted directly at him.
Raoul felt a chill of fear. The Indian"s flesh was wasted, but his skeleton was huge. He looked like he"d be as hard to stop as a tornado.
And he was holding a rifle in arms and hands so big that they made it look small.
The other warriors didn"t have rifles or even bows. They must have run out of powder and shot and arrows. They held clubs and knives and tomahawks.
_They want us to fight hand to hand. That"s what Indians do to show their courage._
_The h.e.l.l with that._
With a movement that seemed almost contemptuous, the big Indian dropped the rifle to the ground. He reached down and picked up a war club painted red and black, with a huge spike at its end.
"Let"s pay "em back, boys!" Raoul shouted. "For all of our people they killed."
"Oui! For Marchette," said Armand, raising his rifle. His first shot caught a warrior in the chest and knocked him down.
At that the Indians rushed Raoul and his men.
Raoul felt himself trembling uncontrollably as the bony giant in the center came straight at him. The big Indian held his war club in front of him, as if to deflect bullets.
Forcing his arms to hold steady, Raoul aimed his rifle at the Indian"s head and fired.
And missed.
_I should have aimed at his chest._
Raoul cursed his shaking hand as he dropped his rifle and pulled his pistol.
The brown giant gave a long, full-throated war cry.
Raoul pulled the trigger. He saw a spark, heard the bang of the percussion cap, but there was nothing more. He cried out in a fury. His sweat must have dampened the powder.
The club came down on the pistol, and Raoul to his horror felt it knocked out of his hand. Again the big Indian screamed out his blood-freezing war whoop and raised the club high.
Raoul"s empty hand fumbled for his Bowie knife. He had it out, a death grip on the hilt. He lunged at his enemy. A jolt ran through Raoul"s arm to his shoulder as the point of the knife sank deep between two thick ribs.
The Indian gave a deep groan and staggered back. He swung his club, but too late. Raoul felt a numbing blow just where his neck met his shoulder, and fell to his knees.
He was looking right into the dark brown eyes of the Indian, who had also fallen. The eyes were unblinking, dead. The ma.s.sive body collapsed against him.
Raoul shouted, a wordless cry of rage, and a red curtain swept over his eyes. He jerked the knife out, releasing a cataract of blood. With an effort that wrenched his arms he hurled the brown giant away from him.
Taking a scalp wasn"t enough, after a fight like that. Raoul got a firm grip on the thick, stiff-standing hank of black hair in the center of his enemy"s head and brought the knife down on the brown throat.
Chopping and slicing and sawing, as if butchering a steer, Raoul cut through the thick neck until at last the head came free.
He lofted the head in his left hand, looking up at the still-open dead eyes.
"There, you G.o.dd.a.m.ned redskin son of a b.i.t.c.h! Thought you could kill me, huh?"