Chapter Selection: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

4.

For the next few weeks we lived on our nerves and the constant yammering of Bill Munroe. He had an opinion on anything and everything and he had come up with an alternative ending for Custer and his men.

"If he of only struck out west instead o' north and east, he'd a-more than likely o' made it back to the main command and save the nation a whole lotta grief." Quite how Bill knew all the details of the battle, we never found out. We merely allowed him to ramble on in his own unique manner. We shut our ears off to his little outburst.
"'Course, he coulda cut Sitting Bull and his boys straight down the middle and split 'em apart. That was he coulda turned the fight around and saved the day…Man, I wish I'da bin there. I'da showed him what ta do." Ranted Bill. I remember thinking to myself that I wished he'd been there too. Bill's outrageous ramblings annoyed me but the drifter seemed to take them in good heart. He merely smiled and laughed in all the right places and it wasn't until we were two weeks into our northward trek that I finally found out the drifters real name.

For the first day or two I had forgot to ask him what his name was. On the third day when I enquired he had grinned and said, "Just call me Willy." So Willy it was for the next week and a half.

One night we were camping down by a free flowing stream with high sandy cliffs to two sides and a forest of live oak and pine to the others. We had seen no sign of any hostiles and were starting to believe we never would. Bill was ranting about how he used to go out buffalo hunting and he happened to mention that he had been a buffalo scout for none other than Buffalo Bill Cody himself.

"I tell ye there was never a better shot on the Plains than Buffalo Bill," stated Munroe. "Why, I seen him take a bull at a thousand paces with that big, old rifle of his…BLAM! Straight through the head," he was becoming more and more animated as the tale unfolded. He continued with, "One day back in 1869 I was ridin' fer Buffalo Bill when we came across a whole heap o' unfriendly Injuns - hostiles ye might say. Well' they came a whoopin' and a hollerin' down the valley an' we found ourselves out numbered ten to one. There was me an' Buffalo Bill and five other fellers an' all o' us were shootin' and poppin' just as many o' them red devils as we could but still them savages kept a-comin'! We was running low on ammunition and the situation was lookin' dire indeed when, all of a sudden-like, Buffalo Bill jumps up and cries, 'Boys, fear not for I shall save us from this terrible situation!' and with that he jumps on his horse and high tails it away. Some of the others thought that he'd lit out on us but I knew different. That wily old big shaggy hunter had a ace up his sleeve an' he was about to play it!" he paused for breath and to make sure that we, his audience, were still listening intensively. With a deep intake of cold night air he plunged right back into his story.

"Them Injun kept a-comin' and the ammo was all but exhausted. Our heart had sunk right down to the bottom of our feet and we were beginning to think that all was lost when, suddenly, we heard thunder approaching from o'er the horizon - 'cept it wasn't thunder at all but a mighty herd o' big shaggies on the run and headin' straight for the Injuns position and leadin' 'em up like a knight in shinin' armour was none other than big Buffalo Bill hisself! Oh, my how those redskins legged it out o' there, just like their god-damn tails were a-fire. Course, a lot of 'em were smashed and crushed under the shaggies feet and there was blood and gore just about every place a body cared ta look. The battle was o'er and we had won thanks to Buffalo Bill and his quick thinkin'!"
"When did you say this was?" asked Willy with a wry smile on his face.
"Ah, back in '69." Answered Bill hurriedly.
"Back in 1869?" asked Willy coyly.
"Yeah, I told ya', 1869. What is it with you, anyhow?" replied Bill irritably.
"Oh, nothing," said Willy almost absently. Then he hit Bill with the big, verbal sucker-punch.

"It's just that I don't remember you, that's all."

Both Bill and I looked at Willy incredulously. I was dumb struck for a moment and so was Bill. Eventually, he managed to blurt out, "Ye mean…"
I interrupted Bill's flow with, "You're the Buffalo Bill?" The drifter that we knew only as Willy smiled broadly as he replied gleefully, "Last time I looked at my reflection in the water I was." I couldn't believe what I was hearing. THE Buffalo Bill Cody was sitting right next to us under a diamond dusted night sky. The moon was full and silver and all was momentarily still as we both took in this incredible revelation.
Of course, Buffalo Bill Cody was not as famous as he is today, but never the less, he was well known to all out on the frontier as a legendary hunter of the big shaggies and as a scout with almost miraculous tracking skills. His adventures with the U.S. cavalry were the stuff of legend.

Oregon Bill was lucky that it was night time so there were no flies about because his mouth was so wide open he'd of caught himself a poke full of the things.
Buffalo Bill turned to us as he built up the fire and said, casually, "I guess it's time to explain a few things, boys."

And explain things he did.

It turned out that he had been contacted by the U.S. military and asked to ride out to Fort Lincoln in Wyoming. He had agreed and had arrived there a week before Custer's massacre on the Greasy Grass by the Little Big Horn river. The commander at the fort, a young captain by the name of Frank Miller, had informed Cody that a bunch of renegade Indians under the command of a fearsome warrior by the name of Red Deer, had lit a fire that the military could not extinguish. Red Deer had attacked peaceful settlers and cattle drovers as well as the occasional wagon train. Indeed, he had attacked a wagon train only three weeks before Cody had arrived at the fort and killed all the men and kidnapped five women and twelve children. It was the women and children that they wanted Cody to return to them. It had caused all kinds of ripples between republicans and democrats back in Washington and elections were due in eighteen months time. Cody was wily enough to realise that Washington wanted them back for political as well as prestigious reasons. It would look real good in all the papers back east if he could find the women and children and bring them back unharmed. Once Cody had been filled in on the situation he had started looking for others to help him in his quest. That's what he had been doing when he came across our fire that fateful night.

"I understand all o' that," I said as he finished explaining about the women and children and the fort and so on. "But what have we gotta do with it all?"
"Simple," grinned Cody. Then, "You and Oregon Bill are gonna help me git them kids and women back where they belong. Back to fort Lincoln. Look, I need a couple o' good men to help me out. I've been having a lot of trouble trying to find them but now I have with you two."
"You have? Asked Oregon Bill flatly.
"Sure," replied Cody empathically. "Soon as I stumbled across yer camp the other week I knew that you two were the fellers for me. Call it intuition, if you will, but I knew fer sure that my search fer two good assistant scouts was o'er."
It turned out that Cody prided himself on being a excellent judge of character and that he had spotted a certain 'something' in me and Oregon Bill as soon as he'd set his vivid blue eyes on us.

Bill was still sitting with his mouth agape as Cody addressed him personally.
"You, Mr. Munroe. I chose you because you have a direct and straight to the point approach. You don't stand any messing around and, with you, what you see is what you get. 'Sides, yer a damned fine shot and an excellent stalker. I've seen that fer myself o'er the past three weeks. The way you trailed that buck deer for us the other day was a great piece of trackin'. As good as I've ever seen. You would make a fine scout, if you decided to take on the job." Then the most famous buffalo hunter of them all turned to me and said, "And as for you, Poncho. Well, you are Munroe's equal in the trailin' stakes and in shootin'. Where you're different is in your approach. Munroe goes straight in where as you tend to be a little more cautious and take your time over matters. You seem to think things out more. You plan ahead and lay down the groundwork before you go charging into a situation. That's a good quality for a scout to possess and it will hold you in good stead if you decide to come along for the ride and join me in my quest to return those children and the women-folk back to civilization. You and Munroe would compliment each other perfectly. So alike in so many ways, but exact opposites too. What do ya think, boys? You both really happy bein' cowpokes with a cowpokes wages or would you rather serve yer country and help rescue those people? Pay be four times what ye get as a ranch hand and all found to boot."

Oregon Bill and I stared at each other as though we were trying to each read the others mind. Everything had happened so swiftly. Only a few weeks before we had been simple cowboys. Riding the range without a care in the world and having a good time of it. Now, we were here with Buffalo Bill himself and he wanted us to join him on what would no doubt be the adventure of a lifetime. Suddenly, Oregon Bill's mute phase passed as he snapped, "I'll do it! Hot damn, If'n I won't. Ye can count me on in, Mr. Cody. I'm yer man!" Munroe's simple attitude had, once again, got him involved in something that he hadn't really had time to think about. One thing was for sure; Cody wasn't going to get such a rapid reply from me. I rolled myself a smoke as casually as I could but my heart was thumping inside. I knew that this was a shining opportunity to better myself. An opportunity to be something more than a hired hand. It was a chance to make something of myself, to be someone for once in my life.

All of these things I was mulling over as I heard Cody say to Munroe, "That's fine, boy. Mighty fine!" I was waiting for him to ask me again to join him on his trek, but he didn't. He just built up the fire and said nothing to me. He was letting me think the matter through carefully. Allowing me to take my time before I came to such a life changing decision. It was Munroe that brought me out of my reverie with, "I'll be a suck egg mule! Who'd e'er believe this one, huh? Buffalo Bill and Bill Munroe ridin' the range together and looking fer adventures! Hey, Poncho, imagine Jack, Joe, Johnny and Danny's faces when they hear about this one? They n'er believe it…no way they will! What'd a ye say, Poncho, are ye in, old Tillicum?"
"I'm thinkin' 'bout it, Bill," I sighed. "Let me be 'till mornin' and I'll give ye an answer then."
"Good idea!" snapped Cody. Then, "I would of expected nothing more from you, Poncho. You sleep on it and let us know in the mornin'"
"When ye first arrived at our camp the other week," I began in earnest. "You played one off against the other, didn't you? You was tryin' one against the other an' no mistake!"
"Indeed, I was," confessed Cody. "I had to sort the wheat from the chaff. Your companions that lit out for El Paso were the chaff. You and Mr. Munroe are the wheat. Simple and as uncomplicated as that."

I don't know why, but I believed him. He was in need of two scouts to help him in his mission. Munroe and me were in need of jobs and he was offering us them. That was what it all boiled down to. He wanted to employ us and we wanted the work.

"Mr. Cody, you don't have ta wait 'till the mornin' for my answer. You got yourself another scout.