The Packhorseman

9. Macbeth

9 Macbeth The next morning began with no surprises. William’s gear was firmly in place on limbs above the ground. A few horses had strayed into a canebrake during the night, but the packhorsemen easily rounded them up in the early dawn light by following the tinkling of their bells. Jim-Bird had gotten up early and cooked a pot of hominy grits and boiled up a kettle of black drink.The men ate quickly and got on their way. After a little more than an hour on the trail, they made their usual stop to inspect the rigging of their horses and tighten it up where tightening was needed. Jim-Bird’s terriers took this opportunity to do some foraging at the edge of the woods. Binkie was the first to investigate a great hollow log moldering in the underbrush. Tazzie quickly joined her, both of their forequarters squeezed together inside, while outside their stubby tails were up and wagging rapidly. Soon they were yapping in high excitement, straining to get at some creature inside the log, each making it harder for the other to push forward. Then suddenly they tucked their tails and backed out quickly. Binkie had a baby raccoon in her mouth. But just as she was giving it a shake, the mother raccoon came flying out of the log as if shot from a cannon, her fur on end and her fangs bared—a perfect fury of a raccoon. Binkie turned to flee with her prey, but the mother raccoon caught her stub of a tail in her teeth and bit down hard. With a sharp yelp, Binkie dropped the baby raccoon and took out running straight for William’s string of horses, the mother raccoon in close pursuit, with Tazzie charging after the raccoon, his hackles raised, barking furiously. Had it been only the dogs, they might not have spooked the horses—the dogs were always underfoot.But the ruffled raccoon barreling straight down on one of the horses was all it took to set it kicking and running for safety. With 106 / Chapter 9 this, the other horses in the string bolted, magnifying the general sense of imminent danger, which in turn led several horses in the other strings to bolt and scatter as well, running helter-skelter up the trail or into the woods. William had dismounted to tighten his rigging, and Viola bolted with the rest, leaving him helpless to do anything but start out after the runaways on foot. Jim-Bird, who was still in his saddle, headed quickly for the fleeing lead mare. Pulling up next to her, he grabbed her halter and rode alongside her until she calmed down. Some of the other horses calmed with her, bringing most of the runaways under control. Three of the horses, however, had run into the woods, where, encumbered by their packs, they had stumbled and fallen and were now thrashing madly, weighed down by their packs and unable to get to their feet. William reached them before the others, taking off his hunting shirt as he approached and wrapping it around the eyes of the first horse he came to. Thomas and John were right behind, blindfolding the other two horses to calm them.Then Sam came and helped them unpack the downed horses and get them on their feet again. Fortunately no bones were broken, but the horses were scratched and bleeding and two of them were lame.The packhorsemen cleaned them of debris and treated their wounds with a salve of bear fat and herbs.Then they repacked the loads of the two lame horses onto two of the spares,leaving only one more spare for the rest of the journey. Sam was of no mind to linger. Everyone helped with the repacking, and as soon as the train was back together, they set off again. William rode along grimly, angry at the world. Not a bit of that melee had been his fault, but it was his horses that spooked first. It made him look bad, though there was not a bloody thing he could have done about it. Sam rode over and fell in beside him.“We came out of that one all right,” he said.“Those little dogs can be a pain in the ass, but we have to put up with them if we want Jim-Bird with us.” William nodded, understanding that he was not being blamed. “The horses seem to know...