Webb’s eyes indicated that he guessed much of the story. “At least the boy’s among friends here.”

“He’s feelin’ kind of low. He needs you to talk to him the way you talked to me that time at Plum Creek.”

“You were younger and easier to comfort. He’s been in purgatory longer than you were.”

“He never looked at it as purgatory. Livin’ the Indian way came natural because he couldn’t remember much else. Now he’s lost that. He’s got no solid ground to plant his feet on.”

“You’ll be takin’ him south with you, I suppose.”

“In a few days. He’s got kind of used to things down there, and the people. I hope you haven’t given his clothes to somebody.” Andy had shed his white-boy clothing for breechcloth and moccasins when he had left here to go back to Comancheria.

“They’re still here, just like he left them.” Webb suggested, “If you’d leave him here the girls would treat him like a younger brother. They’d enjoy teachin’ him to read and write. And Clemmie needs somebody like him to help make up for losin’ Billy and Lon.”

“She’s got you now. And she’s still got one son.”

“James is a grown man. He travels his own road. She needs a boy who’ll need her.”

Rusty did not ponder long. “This is too close to Comanche country. It’d be easy for him to take a notion to go back and test his luck. They’d likely kill him.”

Webb frowned. “I guess you feel a special kinship to him, seein’ what you both have gone through.”

“We have a lot in common, and I’ve got no blood kin anywhere that I know of.”

“Maybe it’s no accident that he fell to you. The Lord knew you’d understand Andy in ways nobody else would.”

“I hope gettin’ into regular clothes will help him make the change. But he says he’s not cuttin’ his hair.”

Webb shrugged. “Leave him somethin’. He can’t change everything overnight.”

Rusty thought back on the buffalo hunter’s dark admonitions. “Do you think he can ever change it all?”

CHAPTER

TBREE

Among the Comanches, Andy Pickard had earned the name Badger Boy because he had that small animal’s fiercely defensive attitude when threatened or abused. He had made it a point to strike back for every blow struck against him. When circumstances did not allow him to do it immediately, he would await his chance to administer punishment. No insult was forgotten or allowed to go unanswered indefinitely. After a time the abuse stopped. Those who would maltreat him learned that retribution was certain, even if occasionally postponed.