The hymen ruptured and she staggered as a wave of pain washed over her. The drums were wilder now.
Slowly she straightened up and removed the marriage stick. She held it out proudly toward the medicine man.
He took it and quickly left the tent.
Silently the women formed a circle around her.
Naked, in its center so she would be shielded from other eyes, she walked to the tent of the chief.
The women stood aside as she entered. In the dim light, the chief and Sam looked up at her.
She stood there proudly, her head raised, her eyes respectfully looking over their heads. Her breasts heaved and her legs trembled slightly.
She prayed that Red Beard would be pleased with what he saw.
The chief spoke first, as was the custom.
"See how profusely she bleeds," he said. "She will bear you many sons."
"Aye, she will bear me many sons," Sam said, his eyes on her face. "And because I am pleased with her, I pledge my brothers the meat of an additional buffalo."
Kaneha smiled quickly and left the tent to go down to the river to bathe.
Her prayers had been answered.
Red Beard was pleased with her.
Now she moved heavily, swollen with his child, as he sat at the table wondering why the buffalo didn't come.
Something inside him told him they would never come again.
Too many had been slain in the last few years.
At last, he looked up from the table.
"Git the gear together," he said.
"We're moving out of here."
Kaneha nodded and obediently began to gather up the household things while he went out and hitched the mules to the cart. Finished, he came back to the cabin. Kaneha picked up the first bundle and started for the door when the pain seized her.
The bundle fell from her hands and she doubled over. She looked up at him, her eyes filled with meaning.
"You mean now?" Sam asked, almost incredulously.
She nodded.
"Here, let me help you."
She straightened up, the seizure leaving her.
"No," she said firmly in Kiowa. "This is for a woman, not for a brave."
Sam nodded. He walked to the door.
"I'll be outside."
It was two o'clock in the morning when he first heard the cry of a baby from inside the cabin.
He had been half dozing and the sound brought him awake into a night filled with stars. He sat there tensely, listening.
About twenty minutes passed, then the door of the cabin opened and Kaneha stood there.
He struggled to his feet and went into the cabin.
In the corner on a blanket in front of the fire lay the naked baby.
Sam stood there, looking down.
"A son," Kaneha said proudly.
"Well, I’ll be damned." Sam touched it and the baby squalled, opening its eyes. "A son," Sam said.
"How about that?"
He bent over, looking closely.
His beard tickled the baby and it screamed again.
Its skin was white and the eyes were blue like the father's, but the hair was black and heavy on his little head.
The next morning they left the cabin.
3.
THEY SETTLED DOWN ABOUT TWENTY MILES OUTSIDE of Dodge City and Sam started to haul freight for the stage lines.
Being the only man in the area with mules, he found himself in a fairly successful business.
They lived in a small cabin and it was there Max began to grow up. Kaneha was very happy with her son.
Occasionally, she would wonder why the spirits had not given her more children but she did not worry about it. Because she was Indian, they kept to themselves.
Sam liked it that way, too.
Basically, he was a very shy man and his years alone on the plains had not helped cure his shyness.
He developed a reputation in the town for being taciturn and stingy.