Lil' Bit and Swift Eagle
by
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It was the day that Mandy was going back home to the Perkins' place. Bigun was going to come by about mid-morning and they were going to ride over together. Mandy was in Anna's dugout getting her things ready. Megen was attending to Big Thang, and looking out the open door, wishing she could be outside more. Anna was out with the sheep. She had taken the whether and market ewes up toward the head of the canyon and left them there. Now she was herding the breeding ewes across from the dugout on the opposite side of the canyon. She was walking along in front of the flock, leading the goat with its bell jingling, and Dog was bringing up the rear, seeing to it that there weren't any stragglers. Bit had been up past the bend in the canyon to look at some heifers, and was riding back toward the dugout. Bit's horses' ears suddenly pointed toward some trees near the canyon wall opposite the dugout. The horse let out a low rumbling sound. Bit took notice and began watching the trees without shifting his head. From time to time groups of small birds would fly out of the trees, and head down the canyon. Bit rode toward Anna. "Hola, Bit! Isn't it a beautiful day?" Bit turned his horse around so that he was walking beside Anna in the same direction that she had been going, shielding her from the trees. Bit spoke very quietly, "Anna, I think there are Indians in the trees. I'm going to grab you and make a run for the dugout. When I do, hang on, and try to keep watch behind us." With that, Bit scooped Anna up, spurred the horse, and headed for the dugout. Swift Eagle had been watching Anna from the trees. He realized they had been discovered. He and two other warriors in buffalo headdresses broke out of the trees on their ponies in a hard run to overtake Bit and Anna before they could make the dugout. Now the Comanches hadn't figured on the sheep. When Bit picked up Anna, and galloped off, Goat started running for the dugout, following Anna. The sheep started off at full tilt following Goat. Dog started barking and headed for the dugout, too. The confusion caused by the sheep slowed down the charging Comanches just enough. Bit and Anna hit the ground running, Bit holding on to the horse's reins. The big Henry spoke from the dugout doorway just as Swift Eagle was starting to reach for Anna. Megen was the first to draw blood in the fight. Swift Eagle did a backward flip off his horse, and hit his head hard on the ground. He stayed down. Bit swung the horse around with his left hand while his right brought the Walker Colt into play. He caught the next warrior just as he was bringing a repeating rifle up to firing position. Two warriors were on the ground. The second warrior's pony screened the other warrior from Bit's vision momentarily, before he could get off a second shot. The big Henry roared again. Now there were three warriors down. Two shots came from the trees, hitting the side of the dugout. Anna had already made it inside the dugout. Bit followed, dragging a horse that was not so sure of what was going on. This wasn't the horse shed. Megen quickly opened the door into the cave, and Bit whacked the horse on the rump, encouraging it to get into the cave, and jerked a big Henry out of its scabbard as the horse went in. Mandy now had a big Henry going from the gun port in the connecting shed. She was keeping their heads down, even if she couldn't see anything. Anna secured the shutters in her dugout, and brought the Navy Colt into action, firing at the tree line. Megen slammed and bolted the door of the dugout, poked the big Henry through it, and added her firepower toward the tree line. Bit secured the shutters and added his Henry to the melee. Big Thang started hollering loud enough to wake the dead. Bit was busy firing at the whiffs of smoke from the tree line, and wasn't paying much attention to Big Thang. But Megen was paying attention to Big Thang. Bit finally noticed that Big Thang wasn't hollering any more. As he was reloading the Henry he looked over where Megen was firing out the door gun port. There was Megen, cradling Big Thang in her left arm, her left tit in his mouth, a Comanche war shield covering Big Thang, and periodically she was squeezing off a round from a Walker Colt toward the tree line. The three remaining Comanches were keeping up a sporadic fire toward the dugout. The puffs of smoke they made drew the fire of those in the dugouts. About that time another rifle from outside the dugout started firing into the tree line. Bigun had been on the way to pick up Mandy when the firefight started. He sized up the situation pretty quick, got himself into position, and joined the fight. Three Comanches were down, one of them being the raid chief. All the Comanche warriors that were down were too close to the dugout for the others in the raiding party to attempt to retrieve their bodies. The lead was flying too hot and heavy in the small stand of trees for the other warriors liking, and all three of them took off galloping through the trees heading up the canyon. Bigun was the first to spot them pulling out, "They're on the run! They're headin for the trail up the wall and out of the canyon!" Bit opened the cave door and brought out the horse, grabbing the Sharps and a bag of ammunition. He slipped the Sharps into the saddle scabbard, and hung the bag of ammunition from the saddle horn. Megen jerked the door open for him and kissed him lightly on the back of his head as he went by. "Take care, my love." She still had Big Thang in his favorite position, protected by the Comanche shield. Bit threw himself into the saddle, the Henry across his lap, and spurred the horse. Megen slammed and bolted the door and watched through the gun port as Bit and Bigun raced off up the canyon after the fleeing Comanches.
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About the Book
Bit Mechem and Bigun Murdock, two confederate veterans work as cowboys in the post-Civil War era. Though they initially met in an altercation, they become friends, and work together on the Bar-O Ranch. They discover a box canyon when looking for strayed cattle during a spring roundup, and return to put their brand on the unbranded cattle they found there and establish their own ranch, the Bar-MM. Bit "steps over the broom" with Megen O’Neil, his previous boss’s daughter, and they set up housekeeping at the canyon ranch. Rustlers hit the ranch, and in the action associated with the pursuit and capture of the rustlers, Bit has a run-in with a group of Comanches that in a roundabout way get him and Bigun into the sheep business. When they go to Kerrville to sell sheep and buy rams Bit and Megen are formally married in a church ceremony. The sheep business holds the ranch together as the cattle business is somewhat stagnant. Megan gives birth to a son, Big Thang. In the meantime the Comanche warfare against the expanding Texas frontier is going hot and heavy. A Comanche raiding party attacks the ranch, but is repulsed. Only one raider escapes. One raider is also badly wounded in the fight. Megen intervenes to prevent Bit from killing the wounded Comanche, Swift Eagle, who gives his word he will harm no one there. He recuperates and he and Bit develop a mutual trust and have a long discussion concerning the differences between the white-eyed ranchers and the People. Swift Eagle returns to the Comanches. Bigun marries Mandy Perkins, with some assistance from Megen. Rustlers hit the Bar-O ranch, burning the buildings, stealing the stock, and killing everyone except Nigger Charlie, the Black ramrod, and Maria, the cook. They go to the Bar-MM. In the meantime the bluecoats under the command of Bad Hand Mackenzie, after a hard campaign, force the Comanches led by Quanah onto the reservation to follow the white man’s road. Swift Eagle and his wife, Smiling Woman, chose to go to the canyon ranch instead of going to the reservation. Bit leads a small group made up of himself, Bigun, Nigger Charlie and Swift Eagle, augmented by a Texas Ranger, to intercept the rustled herd that is headed for New Mexico. They recapture the herd, turn the surviving rustlers over to the Texas Ranger for trial and hanging, and return the herd to Texas. Bit sells most of the herd to the Army at Fort Concho, accepting drafts made out to the cattle owners in payment, and returns the rest of the cattle to the canyon ranch area where arrangements are made to return the cattle to their owners. Quanah visits the canyon ranch and Swift Eagle on his way to visit his Uncle Jack down on the Rio Grande. He is interested in learning all he can about cattle ranching that he sees as a potential way for the Comanche to survive as a people. Bit takes Quanah to Mason’s Store at the Forks so he can see the supply support side of ranching. Bigun, Nigger Charlie, and Swift Eagle also go along. A group of settlers at the Forks become hostile toward the Comanches, requiring Bit and Bigun to provide protection for the party, which they do without bloodshed. Quanah goes on to complete his journey and become the Chief of all the Comanches, the title given him by the white-eyes, and the canyon ranch settles back into its routine.
About the Author
T.F. “Jack” Jackson, Jr. grew up first on a
Northeast Arkansas cotton plantation at Number 9 and later in Morehouse, a
small Southeast Missouri town. He
enlisted in the Air Force as a private during the Korean Police Action and
stayed on for thirty-three and one-half years, retiring as a Colonel in
1984. While in the Air Force he
completed his BS and MBA degrees. After
a follow-on stint as a civilian hospital administrator, he decided to continue
his education and enrolled in a doctoral program in Texas A&M University,
graduating in 1993 earning an Ed D in education with a major in human resources
development and minors in management and educational computer technology. It was during the preparation of his dissertation
that he decided he might be able to write, a long time secret ambition. In
Lil’ Bit and Swift Eagle he pursues a long time interest in the Comanche
and the Texas frontier in the post-Civil War era. Several manuscripts later he is still writing. Now in “retired status” he spends his time reading,
writing, gardening, and volunteering for the Bexar County Master Gardeners and
the Master Naturalists. He resides in
the San Antonio, TX area, and has been married to his childhood sweetheart for
almost forty-nine years. They have four
sons.