bring the team to a halt to great rounds of cheering from every man & woman who seen it. Tom then dismounted himself & hobbled the mules with a stretch of rope before walking to the back of the wagon to inquire on them inside.
It was now that he 1st lay eye on that girl & I do curse that moment I tell you. Out she came from behind the canvas stepping down from that wagon like a Queen & my brother held out his hand to aid her like some Gallant Knight of olden days. But for fate it could of been any of the whores who came out the back of the wagon 1st to take his hand for by the Grace Of God none of them who stayed inside the wagon had much more than lumps & bruises for their troubles.
I tell you any one of them girls could of took Tom’s hand & seen him smile at her. His smile is a terrible sight surely him with a face that would make a funeral turn from a main road but it must not of been terrible to this whore who perhaps like many a Veteran Bill has lain eyes on many horrible things & must betimes scare her very self at the looking glass.
I wonder now did she see something in Tom’s smile to make her fond of him at that very moment or perhaps she has no fond feelings for him at all beyond what any hardhearted whore might have for any soldier boy who brings fistfuls of prairie flowers & gifts of half drunk jugs of trade whiskey to her when he has the coin to call for a f___. Or perhaps her fondness for him is but her thanks to him for saving her body from the terrible watery wreckage of wagon & mule but whatever it is she did smile back at him that poor cutnose Indian whore.
A whore’s smile of gratitude is all you may think it was Sir & you would be right but for Tom well how long was it since a girl had given him the tilt of her lips in a smile? How long I ask you? There was the Mexican Gal at Leavenworth though she would hardly count or maybe she would but I reckon for Tom it must of seemed a lifetime as even whores did mostly recoil from the sight of his face. To be sure they oft came around & smiled at him when they seen what he had in his purse (when he had anything!) but a true blue smile I ask you how long was it? Well God himself could only tell you for it was rare enough it happened even to me but since Chickamauga you could tick it off on 1 hand the smiles or small kindnesses paid by a woman to my brother. You did see for yourself Sir the terrible state of his mug & also you must of seen the fierce far away gleam of madness in his eyes & this too does drive women & men both across the path to pass him by. (Yes I will call it madness for there is no sense at all in calling it anything else this late in the day.)
And all this is more of a pity for you must remember what a fine handsome fellow my brother was before he ate that ball of lead in Tennessee. He was a boy well used to the girleens & their fond attentions. There was once kindness in him too & this was returned most times though it could be said that even before his wounding Tom could fly to anger quicker than most I suppose. But he was not damaged Sir. He was not back then what you would call truly mad.
But here was the sweet Indian pet with her nose cut down to the bone but a fine strapping girl all the same smiling at him & it did twist his heart. Mr. Bridger the Scout did later tell us it was a custom for the Sioux Brave to carve the nose of his woman if she lay down with another man much like a white man might give his wife a thump or 2 should she be in need of it. But Mr. Bridger did say to me also that he never seen such a terrible scarring as this one with nothing but two holes left in