“Buddy! Not YOU.” His mother made a swift little run across the kitchen and caught him on his lean, hard-muscled young shoulders. “You—you baby! What did you do? You didn't harm an Indian, did you, laddie?”
Buddy tilted his head downward so that she could not look into his eyes. “I dunno as I harmed him—much,” he said, wiping doughnut crumbs from his mouth with one hasty sweep of his forearm. “But his horse came outa the brush, and he never. I guess I killed him, all right. Anyway, mother, I had to. He took a shot at me first. It was the day we lost Rattler and the bronks,” He added accurately.
Mother did not say anything for a minute, and Buddy hung his head lower, dreading to see the hurt look which he felt was in her eyes.
“I have to pack a gun when I ride anywhere,” he reminded her defensively. “It ain't to balance me on the horse, either. If Injuns take in after me, the gun's so I can shoot. And a feller don't shoot up in the air—and if an Injun is hunting trouble he oughta expect that maybe he might get shot sometime. You—you wouldn't want me to just run and let them catch me, would you?”
Mother's hand slipped up to his head and pressed it against her breast so that Buddy heard her heart beating steady and sweet and true. Mother wasn't afraid—never, never!
“I know—it's the dreadful necessity of defending our lives. But you're so young—just mother's baby man!”
Buddy looked up at her then, a laugh twinkling in his eyes. After all, mother understood.
“I'm going to be your baby man always if you want me to, mother,” He whispered, closing his arms around her neck in a sturdy hug. “But I'm father's horse-wrangler, too. And a horse-wrangler has got to hold up his end. I—I didn't want to kill anybody, honest. But Injuns are different. You kill rattlers, and they ain't as mean as Injuns. That one I shot at was shooting at me before I even so much as knew there was one around. I just shot back. Father would, or anybody else.”
“I know—I know,” she conceded, the tender womanliness of her sighing over the need. In the next moment she was all mother, ready to fight for her young. “Buddy, never, never ride ANYWHERE without your rifle! And a revolver, too—be sure that it is in perfect condition. And—have you a knife? You're so LITTLE!” she wailed. “But father will need you, and he'll take care of you—and Colorou would not let you be hurt if he knew. But—Buddy, you must be careful, and always watching—never let them catch you off your guard. I shall be in Laramie before you and father and the boys, I suppose, if the Indians really do break out. And you must promise me—”
“I'll promise, mother. And don't you go and trust old Colorou an inch. He was jumping higher than any of 'em, and shaking his tomahawk and yelling—he'd have scalped me right there if he'd seen me watching 'em. Mother, I'm going to find father and tell him. And you may as well be packing up, and—don't leave my guitar for them to smash, will you, mother?”