Grayfox (18 page)

The next thing I knew, I was laying on my back, opening my eyes. My first thought was bewilderment.
Where was I . . . what happened?

I tried to glance around, but every part of my body felt stiff and sore and heavy. I could barely move my head back and forth.

Slowly I began to remember.
Laughing Waters . . . the ride . . . Demming chasing us . . . gunfire . . . jumping down
and trying to stop him with an arrow . . .

I could remember nothing more. In a way, it seemed like it had all happened an hour ago, but in another way it seemed like a month.

I heard footsteps. I tried to twist my neck around, but a familiar voice spoke before my eyes found its owner.

“You are awake at last, I see,” it said.

Even as the words reached my ears, the lovely face bent down over mine. Never have I felt such relief. I must admit that seeing her again, instead of Jack Demming or the desert or a cave filled with snakes, or the inside of a dark grave, for that matter, filled me with such a sudden feeling of happiness that tears came to my eyes.

She saw them and smiled sweetly down at me. Enough time must have passed for her to get back to normal. Her cheeks were full and flushed, her lips no longer cracked, her black hair sparkling, her clothes clean.

And the eyes!

In the two or three seconds that I lay there gazing up into their dark-green depths, I knew why this girl was called Laughing Waters. Though her eyes were nearly black, they had just enough of a hint of green in them that even out there in the middle of the high desert of the Great Basin, they sparkled and danced with a liquid shine that could make you think of an emerald mountain lake or one of the laughing, splashing, tumbling little streams that ran into it. I found myself wondering if she had those same eyes the moment she was
born, if the chief had seen the laughing waters in his daughter's face from the very beginning.

I could hardly take my newly-opened eyes off her. But it was not from her beauty alone. Mostly it was because she was so
alive
with a spirit and vitality that poured out of her eyes as if they really had been two tiny dark mountain brooks full of the waters of life.

“What . . . what happened?” I asked. I was surprised to hear my own voice. It sounded like not much more than a whisper.

“You are safe. I am afraid I did not get as much of the snake poison out of your leg as I thought.”

“Where am I?”

“The camp of my father.”

“How did I get here?”

“I brought you,” she laughed. “How else?”

The merry sound of her tinkling laughter was as musical as her eyes were full of life. I think at that moment I would have been content to just lay there and listen to her voice for the rest of the day!

“But . . . but how?” I said.

“You do not think I would leave you out there alone with that bad man, do you?” she said. “I had already turned the pony back around by the time the arrow left your hand.”

Now the memory of what had happened began slowly to return to me.

“You have quite an aim with the Indian weapon.”

“My best friend taught me,” I said.

“His name?”

“Little Wolf . . . but I didn't see anything . . . what happened to Demming?”

“You shot his horse.”

Now I remembered.

“I realized at the last instant that I couldn't actually kill a man,” I said. “I lowered the arrow toward the horse instead.”

“The shot was true.”

“A bigger target,” I said, trying to smile. “Did . . . did I kill the horse?”

“No. But it stumbled and fell, knocking Demming away and senseless. He lost his gun and lay on the ground just long enough for me to get you away.”

“I don't remember anything,” I said.

“You fainted,” said Laughing Waters, laughing again. “Your face was white as the snow in winter. That's when I knew the snakebite was worse than I thought.”

“I fainted? How did I get back here?”

“I pushed you up across the horse's back. You are a heavy load! I was still weak myself. When I rode into camp, they all thought you were dead. You
looked
dead!” she added, laughing again. “Oh, I am so happy you are awake again! I have been so worried! But I knew the whole time that you would not die.”

“The whole time—how long have I been here?”

“Ten days.”

“Ten days! I've been asleep for ten days?”

“It was a large snake, don't you remember?”

“Vaguely.”

“The venom must have gone all through your body. When you should have been lying quiet, you were running and riding and saving my life.”

“You saved
my
life,” I said.

“Perhaps,” she replied. “But all you did to get me away from that terrible bounty hunter, and then getting down to shoot at him and making me go on alone—it was very brave of you. I have told my father everything. You are hero to the Paiute now, for you saved the daughter of Chief Winnemucca.”

At that moment someone else entered the small tent, and another familiar voice filled the air.

“So, my young friend, it would appear you are going to live after all!”

“Hawk!” I exclaimed, struggling to rise to a sitting position and turning toward the voice.

“You gave us quite a scare, Zack. I don't know if you'd have pulled through if it hadn't been for this little woman here tending you night and day, making you drink, cooling off your feverish face with a damp cloth. I tell you, she hardly ever left your side.”

The flush of Laughing Waters' cheeks deepened at Hawk's words, and she glanced away.

“From what she told me, I owe her plenty just for getting me back here in one piece.”

“I reckon you do. But her father's been going around telling everyone that the young friend of Hawk saved his daughter's life
and is now a friend of the Paiutes in his own right. From what the girl says, you outfoxed ol' Demming pretty good.”

“Where were
you
?” I exclaimed suddenly, remembering more of the details. “I thought you were going to be right on Demming's tail.”

Hawk laughed. “A long story.”

“I want to hear it,” I said. “I kept waiting for you. I could have used your help.”

Hawk laughed again. “If it hadn't been for me, you'd have never escaped from this village alive.”

“What?”

“A long story, like I said.”

“Well, tell me about it.”

“We'll have plenty of time when we get back to normal,” said Hawk. “You had me thinking I was going to have to get used to living alone again!”

“It'll take more than a snakebite to get you rid of me!”

“In the meantime,” said Hawk, “if you
are
going to live, we've got to get some food into you to get your strength back. If you're gonna be my partner, I want you up to full strength!”

Hawk and I stayed another four days with the Paiutes.

I was back on my feet later that day, though I knew right off that I was weak and had lost weight. More than once I heard that I was lucky to be alive.

I ate and drank like a horse, and by the third day I was starting to feel a lot better.

The son of Weeping Feather was still in camp, but after all that had happened he didn't cause me or Hawk any more trouble. He scowled when he saw us, but he kept his knife put away and didn't say anything. On our last day there, I didn't see him around anyplace, and then I learned that he'd left, no one knew in which direction. I wondered if he and Jack Demming would tangle again.

Speaking of Demming, he completely disappeared. Once Laughing Water got me back to camp and told her father all that had happened, Winnemucca sent a small party of braves out to find him. They found his horse wandering about with my arrow in it, but no sign of Demming. The spill that had thrown Demming hadn't broken any of the horse's bones. So they brought it back and nursed it to health. When we left they gave the horse to Hawk.

When I finally got the story from Hawk about where he'd been the whole time, it made me scared all over again. I'd been out there waiting for him to arrive, and he was miles away, clear on the other side of the Paiute camp! If Demming had got the drop on me, I'd have been a goner!

What had happened was this. The Paiutes had let him go early that morning, before I woke up, to position himself somewhere out in the desert and wait for Demming to show up.

As it turned out, he was hiding not far from where I rode past making my escape on the pony, with my hands still tied and hanging on for dear life to the pony and the bow and arrows. Hawk heard the commotion, saw me coming, and saw the Indians chasing me. He
knew I was only a minute or two from getting my young life ended with a Paiute arrow in my back. So as soon as I was past, he jumped out of hiding on the back of the horse the Paiutes had given him, and blocked the Indians' way. He knew they might kill him too, but he took the chance for my sake.

He held up his hands, signaling them to stop. They were angry, but he managed to talk them out of chasing me. He said that if they kept going he'd have no choice but to go after them to save me, and then he wouldn't be able to follow Demming and rescue the chief's daughter.

They finally agreed and turned back. But in the meantime, seeing some ruckus on the other side of the camp, Demming had hightailed it away in the other direction. Hawk saw him across the plain. Even though he figured by then that I was safe and he could have taken off after me if he'd wanted to, he'd given his word that he'd help Chief Winnemucca get his daughter back. Hawk wasn't about to go back on his word, even though the Paiute were going to kill me if he failed.

So Hawk rode back through the camp and lit off after Demming. But by then the bounty hunter was out of sight and had begun to circle back around east. Hawk, meanwhile, kept riding west. So the whole time I was involved with Demming and Laughing Waters, Hawk wasn't anywhere close, but was looking for him off in the wrong direction entirely!

“Didn't you know riding in from the west was to throw us off?” I asked.

“To tell you the truth,” said Hawk, “I didn't have time to think about it.”

“I was pretty sure he'd circle around from where he hid her.”

“I didn't figure Demming to be that smart,” laughed Hawk.

“You always are telling me to stop and think. You always told me to figure the other person was smart. Well, that's what I did.”

“When did I say that?”

“You told me every man has something to teach you, if you only can see it. That's sorta the same thing.”

Hawk laughed.

“You proved yourself a cagey young rascal—you out-thought Demming
and
me this time!”

“You taught me good,” I said. “I remembered a lot of the things you told me when I was out there.”

“Well, you did good, Zack,” he said. “You feeling well enough to travel? I don't want to wear out our welcome here.”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Tomorrow morning?”

“Good enough by me,” I said.

Our last night in the Paiute camp, I was in for a surprise!

There was a big fire burning, and most of the people in the camp were gathered together. Chief Winnemucca wanted to honor Hawk and me for what we'd done. There was special food and dancing and singing.

I have to admit that most of the time I couldn't keep my eyes off Laughing Waters. She was the only one of the dancers I was interested in watching, and every time she circled around the fire and glanced in my direction, the orange from the flames sparkled in her black-green eyes just like the sunlight did during the daytime. Everything about her fascinated me. She was so full of life. What was it that kept drawing my eyes to her?

When the last dance was over, Chief Winnemucca stood. Everyone became quiet and listened while he talked. At first I wasn't paying much attention because I was still thinking about Laughing Waters. Then slowly it dawned on me that he was speaking in both Paiute and English, repeating everything twice. His English was accented and unclear if you didn't pay attention, so I began listening carefully.

I realized he was telling the legend of the gray fox, just like Hawk had told me earlier. The way he told it was so similar that I knew Hawk must have heard it from him.

When he was finished, again everything got quiet.

Then Chief Winnemucca looked over at where me and Hawk were sitting.

“It no secret that Paiute not friend of white man,” he said, still looking at us. “But Paiute able to see good in man, whatever color skin. We know Hawk friend. He treat Paiute with respect, we treat him with respect. He wise man. He know many things. Him see, him understand even what some Indian not see. He give knowledge to Paiute, he help us. He show us many things. We honor him with
Paiute name
Hawk
. Him have hawk eyes, see what other white man not see.”

Hawk sat listening to the chief talk about him in silence. I wished I could have seen his eyes and face right then. But it was dark, and the brim of his hat kept most of his expression shadowed even from the light of the fire.

“Hawk save life of young friend,” the chief went on. “Him teach young man live in desert. We take boy to make Hawk save chief's daughter. But him too smart. We think him only boy. But he man, not boy. He escape. He shrewd, like Hawk. But he no escape just for self. Him risk life to save Laughing Waters. Him have no gun. Him use cunning like fox. He more clever than evil man who take Laughing Waters. Him fool and trick bad man. Him know desert. Him use head to rescue chief's daughter. Him use head to find water. Him cunning and brave. Him risk life to shoot at man with Paiute arrow, save Paiute girl.”

All the time the chief was talking, he was looking at me with such a stern expression, it took a while for me to realize he was praising me in front of the whole tribe!

Then came the biggest surprise of all. He asked me to stand up.

But for a moment I just kept sitting there.

“Get up, son,” said Hawk, giving me a jab in the side with his elbow. “It's not a good idea to disobey a Paiute chief.”

Slowly I got to my feet.

“Come,” said the chief.

I approached him, my knees shaking underneath me. What was he about to do!

He stared straight into my face, still without a hint of any expression. “You deserving to be called by Paiute name,” he said, “like friend Hawk. Him use eyes and understanding to help Paiute. You use cunning and clever wit to save Laughing Waters. So I give you new Paiute name. Chief now name you . . . Grayfox.”

He turned and reached behind him where Laughing Waters was holding a small leather quiver. It had no arrows in it. He took it from her and handed it to me.

It was the same quiver I had stolen the morning I had escaped. I hadn't seen it since I passed out after shooting the last arrow at Demming.

The chief placed it in my hand.

“This now
your
quiver,” Chief Winnemucca said. “It empty. Help you remember that man not always able to depend on strength, on arrows, when facing enemy. Sometimes arrows gone. Sometimes quiver empty. Must depend on cunning. Must be shrewd like fox. Must use eyes like hawk. Empty quiver help you remember.”

Then the chief reached out and took my hand and clasped it in his with a strong grasp.

“Chief Winnemucca thank you for life of daughter,” he said. “You now friend of Paiute. Do not forget your name, young Grayfox.”

He gave my hand a final shake, then released it.

I thanked him, then backed up and sat down beside Hawk.

I was so taken by surprise by the whole thing that I hardly remember much of anything else that happened that night. But I
do
remember looking up across the light of the fire a few minutes later.

My eyes met Laughing Waters'.

She was looking straight into my face with a smile on her lips that I knew meant she was happy for what her father had done.

Mostly, though, the smile was in the orange reflection of the fire in her dancing eyes.