Wildest Dreams - By Rosanne Bittner Page 0,61

as they approached it. Luke wondered if they would all get out of this alive.

"This is a well-armed, well-fed camp," Lieutenant Jiggs told him calmly. "Don't do anything stupid, Mr. Fontaine. One wrong move and we're all dead. I know how much you hate Half Nose and would like to kill him, but don't do it. The last thing your wife needs is to lose her son and you."

"It isn't easy looking right into the face of the man who stole away your own son," Luke answered through gritted teeth.

"He's holding all the cards. You remember that."

They halted their horses and dismounted. Luke stood before Half Nose, glaring at him. They would have been well matched if Luke had not suffered so in his quest that he was not up to full strength. Half Nose outweighed him, but Luke stood a little taller, and he had a hard edge to him now that would intimidate most men, except for this Indian brave who knew he had nothing to fear at the moment. The brave looked him over, said something to him in the Sioux tongue, the words bitter. They sounded familiar. Luke thought maybe they were the same words the man had spoken that night in the cabin when he grabbed him by the hair.

"He say you are child killer," Slow Deer, one of the Shoshone scouts, told him. "Bad white man."

"Tell him I was defending my family and my possessions, just like he would do," Luke answered. "Tell him I didn't know the brave who shot arrows at me was his son and so young. Tell him I am deeply sorry."

Luke hated having to apologize to this man, but he would do whatever he had to do to get Nathan back, and he truly was sorry about Red Hawk.

Half Nose sneered at him as he replied, speaking several sentences before waiting for Slow Dear to interpret.

"He say it is to late to be sorry. His son is dead. He say he has let you find him because it is time you give up searching. It is also too late for you. Your son is also dead."

Half Nose's look of defiance did not waver when he saw the terrible sorrow move into Luke's eyes. Luke studied the man's dark eyes. "Tell him I don't believe him. He wants me to stop looking for my boy because he wants to keep him."

Slow Deer told Half Nose what Luke said, and Half Nose stiffened at the accusation. He shook his head, then looked over at Slow Deer. He carried on in his own tongue, waving his hands, using sign language as he spoke. Luke recognized the sign for water. They'd found Nathan's slippers and nightshirt by a river, evidence that the boy had drowned. No! He would not believe it.

"He say the little boy run away while they are camped, fall in river, and drown. It is probably so. Sioux and Cheyenne do not like to swim in deep river water, afraid of spirits beneath the waters. If the boy fell into the river, they would not have saved him."

"Then ask him why we didn't find Nathan's body when we found his clothes by the river."

Slow Deer interpreted, and Half Nose carried on some more.

"He say body must have drifted farther down the river from where you look. They never find it. It probably washed up on shore, and by now wolves and buzzards have torn it to pieces and dragged it away. It will probably never be found."

The words were spoken matter-of-factly. Luke felt ill. He needed to hit something, to scream, to weep, to kill someone. Surely God wouldn't have let little Nathan's life end that way! He struggled to keep his composure. He had to protect Will and the other men who had so faithfully helped him. And the lieutenant had been right: He had to go back to Lettie. But if he returned without Nathan maybe she wouldn't want him anymore.

He had only one chance left to see if Half Nose was lying.

"Tell him I'm not the boy's real father. Tell him he hasn't hurt me as badly as he thinks, because Nathan was not my son by blood. He might as well give him back to me, because if he was looking to steal my son, he hasn't. I don't have a son of my own."

Slow Deer told Half Nose what Luke said. Half Nose studied Luke's blue eyes for several quiet seconds. He spoke more calmly