When Miss Dorothy’s husband showed up at the homestead at night trying to sweet-talk her into going home with him, everyone was mighty edgy. When the man drew his gun, Sully had me out in a flash! Turned out the guy wasn’t planning to use the gun, so Sully just held me there. When Dorothy agreed to go outside the with man, Sully and I went right along with them to make sure nothing got out of hand.
Remember the stories I told you about that Rankin fellow? On our way to settle the score with him, Sully and I first came across two of his henchmen. He drew me out, and I was sure I was going to see action, but he managed to subdue them without resorting to my help. That was good because I knew how Sully felt about hurting people any more than was absolutely necessary.
Once when Sully and Dr. Mike, with Kid Cole and Sister Ruth, were on a stagecoach, it was robbed. They weren’t hurt, but they ended up walking a good distance to the nearest way station. When they came near it, Sully had the others stay at the top of the hill out of sight. Then he pulled me out and the two of us ran down to check the place out. Everything was quiet right then, so he gave me a flip and put me away. It was later that the Indians showed up and Kid Cole used me to detonate bullets.
One time in the café, a number of the good folks of Colorado Springs were sitting around talking and enjoying Grace’s food. Suddenly, this low-life at one of the tables started complaining about the food and being loud and obnoxious. He actually pulled his gun and was trying to point it at practically everyone at once! Sully had me out and ready for action, but when the man stuck the gun at him, Sully had to lay me down. In the end, it was still Sully who outsmarted the fellow! He and some of the others got the guy so confused that Matthew was able to bring him down.
It seems hard to believe that little Brian eventually got old enough to throw a tomahawk, but he did! I have to admit that the first time I found myself in those young, inexperienced hands, I was plenty nervous! But I had been around Brian a lot through the years and knew he was a good kid, so I hoped he would catch on quickly. Thankfully he did. I was as proud as Sully as I watched the youngster develop his skill.
I
remember in particular how surprised and pleased Robert E was the first
time he saw Brian throw me. “Hey! Where’d you learn to do that?” he asked.
As Brian fetched me out of the post and handed me back to Sully, he said
proudly, “Sully’s been teachin’ me.” Just then, an attractive young girl
and her mom came by. Brian was completely mesmerized, and Sully grinned
when he caught him staring at the girl. When she and her mother walked
away, Brian still stared—until Sully waved my handle in his face to bring
him back to earth. As they turned to leave, Sully told Brian to wipe the
drool off his face! Sully and I got some real enjoyment out of that scene!
I cannot say the same about another scene some time later when an uncle of Dr. Mike’s came to town. He was a refined man from back East who was all taken up with music. Brian and Sully were out by the homestead corral doing some target practice with me when the uncle came out on the porch. Brian assumed the man would be impressed with his prowess—who wouldn’t? But he was wrong. When he offered Uncle Teddy the opportunity to take a turn with me, the man declined, saying rather pointedly that his hands had never touched a weapon. “Weapon? Excuse me?” I wanted to protest. “Is that the only thing you see me as?”
Dr. Mike tried to explain that folks like her uncle were against all forms of violence. Sully was incredulous.
“This ain’t violence!” he explained. “It’s just friendly competition.”
“But to what end?” the man asked (a bit haughtily, I thought) and turned back to the house.
I held my breath (figuratively speaking, you understand), hoping Sully hadn’t been influenced by the other man’s perspective. I should have known him better! He didn’t waste much time watching after the gentleman. Instead, he turned and gave me another toss. That’s my Sully!
As much as I hate to admit it, there was one time in Sully’s life when his skill with me and my kind brought him a great deal of vexation and even grief. It still pains me to remember. It all came about because of something Dr. Mike wanted real bad for the house Sully was building her. In fact, she even went ahead and ordered it against his wishes! Most of the conflict that followed about “his money – her money” went completely over my iron head. All I knew was that my Sully was struggling as I had not seen him do in some time, and I wasn’t happy about it.
Though Sully had no use for the show-off doings of a wild-west show that had come to town, he ended up agreeing to participate in it because of the money they would pay him. I was incredulous when he pulled me out to prove his skills in order to qualify for something he didn’t want to do! For the first time in my life, I wanted to miss! It wouldn’t have been hard…just a couple of inches off, and I could have protected Sully from the humiliation that I could feel lurked ahead. But I couldn’t bring myself to go against his wishes, even to protect him. No, I split that playing card on the post just as he wanted me to.
When it came to the show itself, it made a painful mockery of Sully’s dignity. First was the way he had to dress (“undress” would be a better word!), followed by a disgraceful, dishonest travesty of an introduction—oh, sorry to get off on rant, but I guess you catch my feelings! One of the deceitful-type things Sully had to do was to wear a fake blindfold while throwing me at a target. That of course was no challenge, but for someone who valued integrity as Sully did, it was debasing.
When he was asked to throw a double-edged ax at an Indian on a revolving wheel, the humiliation he felt for the Indian, not to mention what he felt for himself, was beyond bearing. He halted the show and just walked away. I would love to have patted him on the back, but I was afraid I might hurt him! At least I wished for hands to applaud him as we strode away from the crowd, out across the meadow, just the two of us.
I remember a time when Brian was little and he needed an operation on his head. That was mighty serious, and Sully felt terrible. He felt responsible since Brian was with him when he climbed a tree and fell out. While Dr. Mike was operating on Brian’s head, her friends were gathered on the porch of the clinic, just standing around, tense, waiting, and not saying a word. Sully just held me in his hands and “fiddled” with me. I was happy I could provide a bit of relief for some of his tension.
The town had been talking about building a schoolhouse but not getting it done. Word was that a school to attend was Brian’s dearest wish. Suddenly Sully’s hands stopped fiddling. Instinctively I could tell that he had made a decision. He gave me a twirl, and off we went toward the meadow. Matthew and Robert E came right after us. It ended up that while Dr. Mike worked on Brian’s head and then waited for him to wake up, the townspeople worked on the schoolhouse. Brian was so pleased when he regained consciousness and found it all finished!
Being with Sully almost every moment allowed me to follow with great interest the ups and downs of his courtship with Dr. Mike. Since courtship is utterly unknown in the experience of a tomahawk, I found it truly fascinating. Though I did not pretend to understand it, I could tell it was important to them.
Not long after they decided to court, they had a falling out. They couldn’t seem to get beyond the differences that were threatening to unravel what they felt for each other. The attraction between them was absolutely magnetic, but the bond itself was extremely fragile. After they parted with some harsh words, Sully sought solace off by himself. While he sat on a rock mulling over his thoughts, he worked on sharpening me. The skillful care he gave me always felt good, and I could tell that doing it brought him pleasure, too.
Sitting there on the rock, he noticed a fluffy dandelion seed head nearby. He and Dr. Mike had played with the tradition of making a wish and blowing on it. He scooted down off the rock, let me fall to the grass beside him, and picked the dandelion stem. Slowly, thoughtfully, he blew on it. I didn’t have to guess very hard to know exactly what he was wishing.
The
Biggest Rescue of All
I kept Sully company through many times of pressure and stress, so many that I couldn’t begin to tell you about all of them. I’ve chosen just two such experiences. Through them I’ll try to give you a feeling for what it was like for Sully and me together during hard times.
I’ve mentioned the Cheyenne dog soldiers seizing Dr. Mike and holding her hostage. The experience started happily enough with the friendly tomahawk-throwing competition between Sully and Cloud Dancing. Then Dr. Mike arrived with a couple of U.S. Army soldiers with food supplies for the Indians. That was bad news because she didn’t know the dog soldiers were in the village. Before it was over, they had shot the two white soldiers dead, and the die was cast for big trouble.
Sully warned Dr. Mike that if she told the Army what happened, they would wipe out the Indian village, even the women and children, but the idea of not telling the truth just didn’t sit right with her. Sully was still trying to convince her later as they sat in Grace’s café. I lay on the table nearby listening to them argue about it, and I could tell they weren’t going to come to agreement. Later when Sully and I saw General Custer riding up to Dr. Mike in front of her clinic, we hustled over as he slipped me back into place. She did what she felt she had to do and told Custer what had happened to the soldiers. As the words left her lips, I sensed a deep sinking feeling in Sully.
One dark night after Sully and I returned from being with Cloud Dancing in the mountains, we ran across dog soldiers on horses headed towards town. He climbed a tree, and he and I lay low along one of the branches while the Indians passed beneath us. As soon as they were gone, Sully and I rushed into Colorado Springs to warn everyone, but we were too late. The Indians shrieked their way through town, setting the saloon and clinic on fire. Like poetry in motion, Sully shimmied up to the upstairs porch of the clinic with me hanging on for the ride. After I helped him break up the railing, he got the fire out with his moccasined feet.
Predictably, tensions heated up after that. Indians raided settlers’ home for food, and the Army stepped up their efforts against them. The Army ordered everyone to move into town for safety. Sully and Dr. Mike argued again, this time about her going to bring in one of her patients with a broken leg. They ended up both going, and that’s when the dog soldiers cornered them. I was just glad Sully and I were with her when that happened, and I’m sure he was, too!
Sully
used all his wits to try and outsmart them, but they were just too many.
He didn’t even have a chance to pull me out until they were riding off
with the doctor. All he could do was wave me helplessly as he raged at
them. Then he dropped to his knees in despair and I slipped from his hand
to the ground.
Sully carried her to a cave high in a canyon. There he used me to tenderly prepare a padding of boughs for her to rest on. She was exhausted emotionally as well as physically. When he spread their wet clothes out to dry nearby, he laid me and his whole belt with them. That was a relief—except I would have dried better if he would have taken me out of the scabbard!
While she slept, he watched over her and kept a lookout on the valley below. When she woke up, I could tell from my spot with the clothes that some powerful and intense things were happening between them. I was torn between wanting to listen and not wanting to eavesdrop, but it didn’t matter anyway. I was too far away, and his back was to me. After that, however, I could tell that the courtship, which had been on hold for some time, clearly began to pick up tempo once again.
But they weren’t through with the threat from the Indians. One Eye’s comrades caught up with them, and it was pretty scary there for a while. Sully and the doc—in spite of her bleeding, injured feet—took off climbing as hard as they could up a rocky escarpment. Instead of losing the Indians, we got cornered at the top with no escape. They decided their only deliverance lay in jumping from the cliff into the rock pool far below. They left her skirt behind, and just before they ran and jumped, they declared their love for each other again. Despite the panic I was in (for their safety, but also due to the threat of more water!), I was glad they took time to do that.
The jump into the pool saved their lives and mine, too, I guess, and it saved the lives of the Indians back in town that old Custer came so close to hanging.
Fugitives!
As for the other time of stress that I want to tell you about, Sully and I weren’t together for the whole thing. For a solid period of time there, he didn’t even have a tomahawk. (Truth is, Sully had more than one tomahawk over the years; however, our story is one, so I am telling it as such.)
Two years after Sully married his beloved doctor and a year after their baby Katie was born, something most appalling happened to him, something that interrupted his life for a whole half a year. Over the years a lot of animosity had seethed between Sully and an Army officer named O’Connor. It culminated when O’Connor cornered Sully atop a high cliff in the back country and a terrible fight ensued.
They weren’t into it very far before Sully pulled me out to help—but immediately I was dashed out of his hand and flung to the ground. You can’t imagine my agony in the terrible moments that followed as the two of them pummeled each other around—and then the dreadful moment when they went flying over the edge of the cliff.
I wasn’t around for what happened to him in the next couple of months. Eventually I pieced together that he somehow survived that fall but almost died before Dr. Mike and the others found him. Her loving doctoring brought him slowly back to health, but in all that time he did not have a tomahawk. It took Robert E’s making him a new one and sending it to him with Dr. Mike. By then he was fully recovered, and he and I set off on a trek to the north country on an important mission to try and generate some peace with the Indian problem.
In the months that followed, Sully and I were together again, just the two of us, managing life alone away from the town and other people. But now it was under the strangest of circumstances. Instead of living in lean-tos in the open woods as we had done in the past, we were hid out in a cave. Instead of the warmth of friendly stars overhead at night, we had only a dank, rock ceiling. Instead of Sully relishing the solitude as he had in earlier years, he was tormented by the enforced separation from his wife and family. I didn’t understand it all, but it was clear that his life and his very future were in danger as a result of what had happened between him and O’Connor on that cliff. A fugitive, I guess, is what they called him. I wonder if that made me a fugitive, too.....
To put it mildly, those months were a time of frustration for Sully and me. I felt pretty useless, and sometimes he did, too. As much as we ached to do something—anything—to get ourselves out of that predicament, there didn’t seem to be a thing either of us could do. There were no guns for me to send flying,no gallows to halt, no bottles or windows to shatter. Would that it had been that simple! We spent hours sitting around in that cave, and I know Sully spent most of them trying to figure out a way to bring an end to this disruption of his life.
I will say this for him. He handled it better than I did. Being Sully, he did more than just sit. The problems with O’Connor were part of a much broader conflict between the Indians and the U.S. Army. Even with O’Connor gone (the fall was the end of him), the conflict raged. I was with Sully and his friend Cloud Dancing more than once as they tried to gain some influence with Black Moon, the new leader of the Indians. But it was a long time before he could see them as anything but his enemies. In the end it took defeat by disease and Black Moon offering himself as a sacrifice to save the lives of his warriors. But again I am getting ahead of my story.
It was a time of tension for everyone, especially Sully. His friend Daniel kept him furnished with supplies (fortunately, they didn’t have to worry about food for me!). They planned regular times for Daniel to come so Sully would know when to expect him. Nevertheless, Daniel occasionally showed up at other times, and that always sent Sully’s blood racing for a moment. About all the action I saw in those days was when he heard someone outside the cave unexpectedly. He would whip me out, and I would be there in his hand, tense and ready for action. It was always a huge relief for him when he saw that the person coming in was a friend. Of course, I would never have dared let on that I often felt a tinge of disappointment when I found myself so quickly back in the scabbard with nothing to do but wait for the next breath of action!
It was not only a time of anxiety, it was a time of sadness. Death visited Sully’s friends when Robert E. and Grace lost their son, Anthony, Brian’s best friend. It touched his family even more when Dr. Mike’s sister and Colleen’s long-time friend succumbed to diphtheria. It struck even closer when Dr. Mike miscarried a baby Sully didn’t even know they were expecting. It weighed heavily on Sully that he could not be with those he loved when they were hurting—not just for their sakes but for his own. As for me, I was frustrated beyond description that all the ways I had of helping Sully, not a one of them could do a thing to ease those pains and the heaviness of his heart.
Another thing that was hard for Sully was missing out on so much with his little daughter Katie! During that time as a fugitive, she changed from a baby into a little girl. True, Dr. Mike brought her often to visit her pa, and it was a pleasure for me to be around as he played with her. But even I knew that wasn’t the same as if he had been at home and part of every day in her life.
Fortunately, Sully enjoyed an unexpected reprieve as far as his children were concerned. One night while he was asleep and I was lying on the cave floor beside him, Daniel astonished us by walking in with Brian and Katie! He not only arrived with them—he left them with us! The diphtheria epidemic was raging, and Dr. Mike had decided the safest thing for the children was to get them out of town and have them stay with Sully.
Not long after, Daniel surprised us even more by arriving with Dr. Mike’s Boston mother! She wanted to take the children back East to protect them. I listened with great admiration as Sully told Mrs. Quinn politely but firmly that she was welcome to visit her grandchildren any time but that no one was leaving unless it was her! She was still there when Daniel surprised us again, this time to tell us about Dr. Mike’s sister taking a turn for the worse. The last time Daniel came during the epidemic, he himself collapsed outside, and Sully and I had to spirit him into town, almost under the soldiers’ noses, so that Dr. Mike could treat him.
In spite of all the stress and melancholy, it was also a time of challenges. Some were rather fun, such as when Sully made surreptitious trips back home. Together he and I would slip past soldiers or wait, hidden, while they passed us by on their horses. I loved it when Sully surprised his wife, in the barn or the corral, up the road from the garden—or even the bedroom! I always got to go along, and I loved those times because I knew how much they meant to him and how they cheered his heart.
One particularly exhilarating challenge was trying to get Sully home for the family’s Thanksgiving dinner without his being discovered by the soldiers who always guarded the homestead. Daniel came up with the scheme. When he took Brian and Katie home after the epidemic, Sully and I hid up under the belly of the wagon. Oh, my! What a scary ride that was! Not only were the roads rough, but the soldiers searched the wagon while all of us held our breath. After they waved us on and we pulled up in front of the homestead, Sully dropped to the ground while everyone’s attention was on the kids. He and I slipped into the root cellar, and then they opened the trap door for us to come up into the house.
The
greatest challenge of all, however, had to be Dr. Mike’s securing a pardon
for Sully so he could go home. Sully and I weren’t there to see it happen,
but she managed it by standing up to the Army big-wig who had agreed to
accept Black Moon’s surrender. The day came when Sully and I, along with
Black Moon and Daniel, rode tall into Colorado Springs for the surrender
ceremony. All Sully’s friends were out to watch his quietly joyous return
to his rightful world. Even though I had nothing to do with the resolution
of the problem, I was plenty proud to be part of that procession. After
all the weeks Sully and I had kept each other lonely company, I feel sure
he was glad for me to be there, too.
Well, that’s my story, and that’s the way it was for Sully and me. I never wanted anything more than just to be with him—to serve him, to protect him, to keep him company, and he always felt a little better—safer, more confident—knowing I was there for him.
Epilogue
I thought I was finished with these memoirs, but Sully and I unexpectedly enjoyed a resurrection of sorts. What a gratifying surprise that was! But it was only the beginning of surprises. You see, during this resurrection, Sully used me in a way that he never had before.
He used me to kill someone.
Because Sully had always done everything possible to avoid dispatching me to kill, I admit I had come to assume it was something I would never be called upon to do. I knew what kind of man Sully was—a man of peace and integrity, a man who would rather negotiate than win if winning meant destroying another human being.
However, during this resurrection Sully confronted a situation that tested him and his family beyond anything they had ever encountered before. Little Katie was kidnapped and taken to Mexico. Finding her and getting her back required the utmost wisdom and skill on Sully’s part. The rest of the group looked to him for leadership, and personally I was as proud of him as I have ever been.
Not that he was looking to win medals for leadership or wisdom! Oh, my, no! He simply wanted to get his precious little girl back, especially since he felt a bit responsible for her being snatched. Sully’s values had always been clear, but this experience distilled them even more.
The search party of folks from Colorado Springs was asleep one night camped outside a Mexican village. Brian was on guard duty (can you imagine his being so grown up?). He heard a sound, and Sully too was instantly alert. He grabbed up his belt from the log, me with it, and buckled us on. Brian quietly awoke the others. As Sully tensely searched the darkness, he drew me out of the scabbard. I don’t know if it was the murky gloom or the strange country or what, but I felt more apprehensive than usual.
Suddenly the night exploded with gunfire. Everyone ducked for cover—except Brian in his youthful eagerness. Out of the darkness several men appeared, sombreros and all, firing as they came. Brian took a shot at them. A second later, he was flung to the ground by a bullet. Sully bolted up from behind the log, and just that fast I was whipping through the air.
As I sliced the dark, smoky night, I didn’t have time to wonder if this was really what Sully wanted me to do. I just followed his orders precisely and felt myself sinking into something I had never felt so deeply before—warm, human flesh and the crunch of bones beneath my blade. The Mexican staggered, spun around, and tumbled to the ground with me in his chest.
When the shooting stopped, Brian was the only one of us injured, but several Mexicans were down. After making sure his son was okay, Sully made his way cautiously over to the man who had shot him. I waited tensely, hoping I would soon be released from my unpleasant surroundings. Sully turned the man on his back—and was dismayed to discover it was the owner of the cantina who had been so friendly to them earlier in the day.
For the longest moment, Sully stood in a daze, trying to comprehend what had happened. Without even looking at me, he pulled me from the man’s chest and tossed me aside. If I hadn’t known Sully better, I might have felt hurt, but such a thought never entered my iron head. Sully was not upset with me! He was simply overwhelmed at the turn of events and what he had been forced to do. We both knew that he was grateful I had once again been there when he needed me.
In the high-drama days that followed and led to Katie’s rescue, I was grateful not to see any more action like that in the woods. I was, however, with Sully every moment. When he discovered where Katie was and stole into the hacienda after her, I was right at his side. My heart broke for both of them when they were discovered and she was taken forcibly away from him again! More than at any time I could remember, I wanted to take matters into my own hands and strike out at what was happening. But Sully and I were both helpless. It remained for a kind lady to show compassion, release him, and let him take Katie with him.
That crisis was hardly over when we faced another one even more terrible. Barely in time, we arrived to see Dr. Mike facing a firing squad. Unfortunately, a firing squad was not a hanging rope that I could split nor a single pistol that I could skillfully send flying. Instead, Sully had to resort to dynamite. Thankfully, it brought the proceedings to a startled halt, and then he and I vaulted over the wall to rescue Dr. Mike.
On the long ride back to Colorado Springs, I had plenty of time to contemplate what had transpired. I knew Sully regretted having to take a man’s life, and he would never forget how it made him feel. But I also knew he had no apology for defending his family and friends to the last degree. It was clear to me, no matter which way I looked at it, that the events in Mexico cast no shadow on who he was. He was still the same Sully I had always known, wise and courageous, strong in spirit as well as body, a man of principle and honor.
I knew that I was as proud and grateful as ever to call him my friend.
Wouldn’t you be?