Apache Sisters Sold Like Cattle – Lonely Rancher Who Bought Them Said, “I’ll Take You Home”
Chapter 2
Pretty story, Coleman. Real pretty. But you left out a few details that might change how people see your little act of heroism.
I was there that day. I was bidding against you. And I saw what you’re conveniently omitting.
You hadn’t just been in Tombstone on “business.” You’d been drinking at the Bella Union since noon. I smelled the whiskey on your breath when you walked past me — three steps away and I could still smell it. You were three months late on your mortgage payments. Jim Pritchett at the bank had been talking about foreclosing on Red Canyon for weeks. Everyone in town knew you were one bad season away from losing everything Sarah left you.
That $500 you spent so nobly? That wasn’t ranch money. That was the insurance payout from Sarah’s death. You’d been carrying it around for three years like a millstone — couldn’t spend it, couldn’t let it go. I watched you touch your breast pocket before every single bid, like you were asking a dead woman for permission to finally part with her blood money.
So here’s the real question nobody’s asking: Did you buy those girls because you *wanted* to save them? Or because you needed an excuse to finally spend the money you couldn’t bear to touch — and playing savior was easier than admitting you were broke?
And that knife you used to cut their ropes? That’s a cavalry-issue blade, Model 1860. Same kind used during the Apache Wars. I know because I served with the 3rd Cavalry in ’76, same as you did. I know what that knife has done. I know what *you* did with it.
Funny how you left out the part about serving under Colonel Whitfield at Red Canyon. Funny how you failed to mention the Chiricahua campaign of ’78. The village. The orders. The women and children who didn’t make it out.
Those two sisters think you’re their savior. But I wonder, Coleman — would they feel the same way if they knew exactly whose blood stains the blade that cut their ropes?
Just asking questions.
*Edit — I see people are already defending him in the replies. Go ahead. Ask him about Nal Nish. Ask him what happened at Red Canyon Pass. I dare you.*