Building Utopia Ch. 06

Late that afternoon the scout came back to Roger's main body. He reported they were almost in sight of the escaping thieves. He said, "Governor, all but one of the men we trail are those who ran off last winter. They are in poor shape and are moving slowly. The other man with them looks like a Spaniard, Sir."

"OK, let's wait for them to stop for the evening and settle down, then we'll capture them. This time they aren't getting off so lightly. We cannot allow people to either attack our colony or steal from us."

Later that evening Roger and his men surrounded the camp. As the men settled down with their evening meal Roger stepped to the edge of the clearing and said, "I let you men go when you stole our meat and deserted our colony. That was your one chance. You are all under arrest now for stealing from the Birmingham Colony."

When they heard Roger speaking the thieves jumped into action. One man had an old musket and tried to shoot Roger. Others drew knives or picked up crude bows and looked for targets. That, of course, was a mistake. Roger pulled his pistol and shot the man with the musket. Two other men from the patrol also had firearms and shot the two most dangerous looking men who held bows. The rest of Roger's men moved into the camp and disarmed the remaining thieves with their hand to hand fighting skills. By the time the battle was over all the thieves were seriously injured.

After the prisoners were secured Roger began questioning them. He found out that after they escaped they moved all the first day and most of the next day to put distance between them and Birmingham. That night they ate well and slept deeply from exhaustion. For the next several days they moved away from the colony and toward the coast. It seemed they had dreams of finding a ship and returning to London where they believed they could live in more comfort with less work.

On the fifth day their food ran out. They found an Indian camp and tried to steal more food from them. All but the five on this raid were killed or captured in the attack. The remaining five managed to escape the vengeful Indians and kept moving in the direction they were headed. As the winter became harsher they came to the conclusion they needed to find a place to wait out the cold weather. They found a cave with the Spanish man in it. For some reason instead of killing him and taking the cave they came to a peaceful arrangement and wintered with him. Food was scarce. If not for the Spaniard and his hunting ability they would have starved. As it was, they barely survived.

It was finally decided to return to Birmingham and raid the stores once again then follow the Spaniard to Florida where they hoped to catch a ship to Europe.

Roger sat and thought about what the men he questioned told him. He was afraid if he left them alone and they survived they would once again attack or steal from Birmingham. Finally, with regret, he decided to kill them. He announced his decision and the order was executed immediately. They weren't far too from the cave where the thieves had met the Spaniard, which was a good thing. The knives and other utensils that the bunch had stolen had been left there as not to laden them during their planned raid. At first light, Roger and his patrol headed for the cave, after which they would begin the journey back to Birmingham.

When the patrol arrived back at the colony they were met with joy. None of Roger's men were injured and they had recovered a lot of the stores taken on this last raid, as well as the pots and knives that had been stolen initially. There was a somewhat muted reaction to the deaths of the prisoners. Some of the men who gave Roger the most trouble looked at him differently now. Some of the more liberal colonists even thought he should have just brought the thieves back and jailed them for a time then sent them away again. No matter what the colonists thought however, they now knew Roger would not allow serious crime to go unpunished.