Thundermaker
by
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Marsh bent low, heading directly for the camp. Fear snapped at him as he looked back to see the two men riding hard a short way behind. He was sure the two would overtake him but apparently they had used their animals up on their scouting to a greater degree than he had his. Soon they began to drop back, finally reining to a halt. He pulled up and watched them. They stood their ground for a few minutes, then slowly turned their horses around and headed back toward the column.
Marsh pushed his horse hard and it was badly lathered when he came around the hill that concealed the flat area making up the camp. He unholstered his Remington and fired it to alert the camp. Several warriors rode out to meet him and he yelled, 'White soldiers! Bluecoats! Get ready to fight!'
Marsh skidded his horse to a stop and saw Find Man riding up. 'Get two team horses,' Marsh said. 'I'll get gun ready.' He ran to the Whitworth and found Iron Knife already preparing it. While he was helping the Indian, Snow Woman ran up to him.
'I'll get you a fresh horse, my husband,' she said, catching up his jaded mount. 'No!' he shouted. 'Get back to camp where it safe.'
She shook her head. 'There is no safe place. And Indian women fight too.' She moved off, pulling the horse with her.
Find Man brought two of the team horses and they hitched up the gun and moved it closer to where the troopers would most likely appear, if they followed his trail back to the camp. The Whitworth was between the small rise they would come around and the camp, but off to the right of the camp as the two men faced away from the lodges. Further to their right, almost at their backs, the ground swept up to another ridge, not all that high and easily climbable, about five hundred yards away. Marsh had loaded the gun with more homemade canister, patterned after Wilder's and put together during the long winter months. It was made from smooth river rocks. There wasn't that much unused metal in camp but he felt the rocks, layered between sections of buffalo hide, would do the job if the distance wasn't too great.
The Cheyenne warriors had caught up their war ponies and, those that had time, painted themselves. Bulge Eye and Man Afraid had taken some warriors toward the ridge on their left in an attempt to flank the troopers but no sooner had they disappeared from sight over the hill than the cavalry swept around the base of the hill to Marsh's front and spread out to face the camp. Marsh had kept the two team animals in front of the gun to mask its presence and he watched as the soldiers formed a long frontal line. It was plain these men didn't come to parlay for peace.
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About the Book
Henson Marsh is an ex-Confederate artilleryman returned from the Civil War to a ruined South.
He leaves for the West, hoping to find a place where he is accepted into the Cheyenne trive, but his prowess with the gun brings tragedy to both Indians and Marsh and he returns to the white world.
Marsh begins a new life in a Montana gold town but his success with whiskey making - and the affections of a pretty saloon owner - bring him to a showdown with the town's 'boss.' Marsh wins a gunfight but loses his business and is forced to leave - along with a new wife.
Marsh hopes for a fresh start in the sleepy town of Los Angeles, where his Mexican wife has family. But an Army Officer who has dogged him over the years imprisons him and - after a hasty trial - prepares to hang him. Marsh is rescued by his wife and flees to Old Mexico where he once again uses a cannon to fight for his life - but is bested by the officer. If help is to come, it would have to be from a very unlikely source indeed.
About the Author
Brad Prowse has had a life-long love for, and interest in, America's 'Wild West.' He began writing magazine articles on this theme in the early 1970's and he has written for True West, Western Horseman, American Cowboy and like publications as well as furnishing a local daily newspaper with two monthly columns, one about Nevada County, California history.
The idea for Thundermaker, the story of a Confederate artilleryman who, adopted into a Cheyenne tribe, uses his fighting skills in defense of the tribe, was placed on paper fifteen years ago but then was put aside. It was recently revised and submitted to 1st Books Publishers. While Thundermaker may seem to borrow from such novels as Cold Mountain and Dances With Wolves, it predates both these works by at least five years.