The Cross of Cortez

By Robert Marinchick

A priest finds a cross in an old desk drawer. The cross was commissioned by Hernan Cortez for Pope Leo X. After examining the cross, the priest determines that it should indeed be sent on to the Vatican. The one person to do that is Harry Janek, but he has to battle forces from the future who want the cross because of it healing qualities and the price that it commands. A reluctant Harry accepts the challenge.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Nov 17, 2016
• ISBN: 9781365457654

Book preview

The Cross of Cortez

The Cross of Cortez

A Novel By

Robert J. Marinchick

First Edition

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Copyright in 2016 by R. J. Marinchick

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or distributed in any printed or electronic form without the expressed consent of the author. Thank you for not violating this request.

ISBN:  978-1-365-45765-4

This is a work of fiction. All characters are a product of the author’s imagination. Some names are facsimiles of my good friends or family members of which I have tremendous love and respect.

Prolog

Father Richard Kendle was a Dominican Friar from the San Francisco Provincial. He was also the Missionary Pastor of the Holy Rosary Church in the Wyoming Territory at the foot of the Teton Mountains. He had a number of parishioners including mountain men, Indians, drifters and wrongdoers who were all trying to find God.

One of his parishioners, a drifter from Mexico, collected religious articles in his travels. He did not mention if he found them or if he obtained them by other means. In any event, he willed them to the Church when he died. Among the treasure that the man possessed was a box with a solid bronze cross and a letter inside. He never opened the letter since he could not read.

Father Kendle found the box and began reading the letter, only to be interrupted by a need to minister Extreme Unction to a parishioner in a lean-to a few miles away. He placed the letter back in the box with the cross and put it in the bottom drawer of his desk with a bunch of papers on top. He then went to minister the sacrament and he forgot all about the box.

Many years later in the course of cleaning up the Mission Church, Father Dennis Lombardo, a replacement priest from the San Francisco Priory, found the desk in storage and began restoring the wood to its former glory. He found the box with cross and letter in the desk drawer where it had been placed so long ago.

He began reading the letter which was written in old Spanish. The gist of the letter stated that the cross was actually a crucifix covered with bronze strips that were soldered together. These strips would protect the crucifix from damage during shipment and also from would be robbers who would think the cross had no value. However, the corpus and cross were made of solid gold and the cross was embedded with precious stones. The cross member had slivers of wood from the Cross of Jesus imbedded at each end. According to the letter, miracles have been attributed to possession of the cross.

The cross was commissioned by Hernan Cortez in 1521 to be sent to Pope Leo X in honor of King Charles of Spain. Apparently Cortez was trying to atone for his mutinous behavior when he took his enterprise to Mexico against the orders of the Governor of Cuba. How the drifter obtained the cross will never be known.

Father Dennis was very skeptical of the information in the letter, but had the bronze strips removed. What he found was awe inspiring. He felt that he had to honor Cortez’s wish and send this cross on to the Pope, only now it was 1877 and the Pope was Pope Pius IX.

Who could the priest get to take the cross to the Vatican? He wanted a young, single man who was trustworthy and wise beyond his years. However, that man, Harry Janek, was incapacitated, lying in bed at the Hill ranch having just been shot three times in the back by Jesse Friedland, the accused murderer of his own brother-in-law, the town’s newspaper editor, Hank Morgan. Justice was done because before he blacked out from the pain, Harry was able to get one shot off at Jesse hitting him fatally in the heart.

Fortunately for Harry, he was wearing a bullet proof shirt at the time, which prevented the bullets from penetrating his body, but the bullets did cause a lot of damage. In addition to the welts on his back, the bullets shattered two of Harry’s vertebrate.

Considering that it was the year 1877, Harry was a very lucky man. Harry’s doctor, Jonah Knew, was the town physician. More importantly, though, he was a time traveler from the year 3033, who brought along a very sophisticated machine called The Rejuvenator, that helped restore Harry’s spine.

Initially, Doctor Knew was supposed to travel back to the year 2735 to attempt to right a wrong done to the people on this planet. However, a spike in power, caused by a lightning strike to the wormhole generator power supply, made the doctor miss his designated year, and deposited him near the Teton Mountains of the Wyoming Territory in the year 1845. The same lightning strike snapped the wormhole’s connection to his time period leaving the good doctor with no means of returning to his original time. Although the wormhole was severed from its origin, it was still active; scooping up people from different lifetimes.

The Rejuvenator that the doctor brought could perform numerous repairs to the human body, including, restructuring the atoms of the body to that of a younger person. However, this took a tremendous amount of power and the subject had to have a surplus amount of stem cells for the function to work. It took the doctor three years to put The Rejuvenator together. The power supply that he brought with him was a heavy duty capacitor about the size of a beer keg. It had a controllable distribution mechanism that automatically provided the correct amount of power for the function that it was performing.

The Doctor had a scanner that was able to tap power from the capacitor and be used to monitor wormhole activity. Its main purpose was to send messages back in time to his original team members. However, he couldn’t tell if that function was still working. He never got a reply in all the years that he had been transmitting

Doctor Knew used The Rejuvenator on Harry to restore his vertebrate to a normal condition, but in the process, ran out of power before the procedure was completed. This caused Harry a great deal pain as his body started to repair those sensitive areas.

Doctor Knew felt sorry for Harry since he felt responsible for Harry’s being in this reality. Harry was a retired corporate executive who just happened to step into Dr. Knew’s wormhole as he was trying to escape from a grizzly bear. Both the grizzly bear and Harry traveled through time from the year 2012 to the year 1876. They landed in the same spot in the Teton’s as did Dr. Knew which was the default setting on the wormhole transport mechanism. Apparently in the Twenty Eighth Century there was a bustling community at that spot.

Because Dr. Knew’s mission needed agility plus intelligence, the initial setting on the wormhole mechanism was to realign the atoms of his body into that of a twenty five year old. Anyone that was captured by this wormhole experienced the same phenomenon, and that included Harry.

At first, a stunned Harry had a hard time believing that he was just twenty five years old again, but what is, is, and he had to accept that.

He wanted to return to his own time and kept going back to the place in the Tetons where he originally landed, trying to catch a wormhole back. Only once did he see a wormhole that he could enter, but it was spinning the wrong way. Wormholes only go one-way, so Harry was trapped in the current reality.

Fate brought Harry a new trail to follow, but it also gave him a rebirth that allowed him to do some good in a faulty world. After the initial shock of a new reality and a new body, so to speak, Harry counted himself fortunate since he was able to cope with experiences of this rough western existence.

The local sheriff, Matt Breen, arrested Harry when he brought two bodies that he found on the trail into his town. An Indian named Uarto, who killed a local who was looking for his own wormhole back to the reality from which he came, and the Indian himself who was killed by the bear that was sucked into the worm hole with Harry. While in custody, Sheriff Breen asked Harry to be his deputy, after Harry helped him walk the town. The sheriff felt much safer with Harry walking beside him carrying a shot gun. Although Harry never told anyone, he was a member of the Air Force Military Police in his younger years, which provided some of the skills that Harry needed for this job. Harry handled most of the investigation when the editor of the town newspaper was murdered. It was while solving this crime that Harry experienced his current setback.

Rebecca and Willard Hill were glad to take on the responsibility of restoring Harry to good health, since Harry had saved Rebecca’s life when her stagecoach came under Indian attack.

Willard, who was the owner of Willard’s Emporium, one of two stores in Jackson, also felt a little obligated to Harry since Harry took the three bullets in the back confronting two drovers who thought they’d steal the last two Winchester rifles that Willard had in his store.

Harry didn’t realize that Jesse Friedland had paid the two men to cause this distraction so he could set up Harry for assassination. Since the drovers didn’t kill Harry, Jesse was right behind Harry putting three shots into his back. A very surprised Jesse found out that it took only one bullet to balance the scales of justice.

The Hill’s had an adopted daughter, Teresa who everyone called Marigold. She was a beautiful young lady about twenty two years old. She was Harry’s major caregiver, and very selflessly took care of him, even though Harry acted as a crotchety old man at times. Supposedly, Marigold was the daughter of a Spanish noblewoman and a Cheyenne Indian Chief. She grew up at the Holy Rosary Mission Church on the outskirts of the Indian camp. For some reason, the Chief didn’t want Marigold around the Indian camp, so Father Kendle, and later, Father Dennis, agreed to let her stay at the mission with his house keeper and her daughter, who was a little younger than Marigold.

Although he was fighting it very hard, Harry was greatly attracted to Marigold. Yet he felt that it was wrong because he was a seventy four year old transplant from the 21st Century. He had already experienced a lifetime in another world. Was it right to get involved with someone from this reality and change the future? Would it be for the better, or for the worst? Well, by being active in this time line he already changed the course of the future. After a week of lying in bed feeling sorry for himself, he resolved to act in a better manner, and let things happen naturally. He could only hope that any changes he made to the future would be for the good.

Harry realized that this was truly a different reality than the one from which he came since this town shouldn’t really exist yet. In Harry’s reality, Jackson was founded sometime in the early twentieth century, not in 1845 as the people in this reality believed. Since things were already different in this reality, maybe his presence here wouldn’t cause major changes to the future. He felt alone in the world from which he came and he didn’t like it. He really didn’t want to be alone in this reality. Maybe he could find a friendly place here. Mr. and Mrs. Hill did welcome him into their home.

These were some of the thoughts that Harry carried into the second week of his recuperation. How long would he take to heal? The doctor said a couple of weeks; Harry didn’t really believe him. He always healed rapidly in his previous lifetime, but his body never experienced the trauma that it had so far in this reality. He would work hard to overcome his current condition, but he also wondered what new surprises awaited him. One thing he did know though, you had to believe in yourself and work hard to make things happen!

Chapter 1

During the first week of Harry’s recovery, the Doctor visited Harry almost every day. He kept telling Harry that he had to tough it out until he could come up with some pain relievers that wouldn’t become addictive. The Doctor explained exactly what Harry would experience, and all the problems that Harry could encounter before he recuperated fully. Harry didn’t like what he heard, especially the part about the power supply failing and leaving Harry in a lot of pain. He realized that he shouldn’t take it out on Marigold, and tried not to, but to be human is to feel sorry for oneself, especially at times like these. Good sport that she was, Marigold put up with him.

Two days later, the doctor was again at the ranch to look in on Harry. He brought some pain potion that he made from some cocaine leaves that had been shipped from a Salt Lake City apothecary. It was a mild version of the drug and helped to take the bite out of the pain. He told Harry to use it sparingly so he would not become addicted to it. Harry asked him if he recharged the battery yet, so he could undergo treatment and alleviate the constant pain.

Unfortunately, said the doctor, we have no means of recharging the battery. It really is just a big capacitor and there is nothing we can use to charge it.

What about lightning? asked Harry.

Lightning.., how would we do that? asked Doc.

From what I’ve read, said Harry, lightning is static electricity created by positively charged particles in the atmosphere that try to find the easiest route to a discharge point, a negative pole, which in our case is the ground. If your capacitor can stand a charge of about 3 million volts, you can hook up an antenna to the top of a tree or barn, or any other high place and connect a wire to the positive pole of your capacitor. The negative pole you can connect to a metal stake that is driven into the ground. If and when the positive charged particles react with the antenna creating the lightning, it should discharge through your capacitor with the excess traveling through the negative terminal into the earth. How many volts can your capacitor withstand?

Don’t rightly know, said Doc. It was designed by our elite science group to last for a number of years. I know it took a long time for the battery to charge up. Each time we did it, almost all the energy generated by our local hydroelectric plant was used to do the recharging and it took about five days to do it.

Well, we have no hydroelectric plants and no other means of recharging that battery. You can try to use the lightning. If it works, you’re ahead of the game. If the lightning destroys the battery, you’re still in the same boat, but with an unusable battery. Still, the battery is yours, Doc, and you are the only one to determine if you want to try to recharge it or not.

Then Harry said, I’ve been getting up only to use the bathroom, but I’m getting used to the pain, so if it’s all right with you, I’d like to be able to sit in the living room or wander around a little more.

"To take a page from your own book, you’re the only one that can tell if you’re capable of doing anything, so, if you feel up to it, I’ll let Rebecca and Marigold know that you can get up and move around and possibly have dinner with them, also. You had two shattered vertebra which The Rejuvenator repaired. We just didn’t have enough power to repair the tissue around them. That’s what’s so painful. So, don’t stay up too long or you’ll aggravate that area. I think your back is capable of standing a lot of trauma, but I think the pain will be too great to take for an extended period of time, so just take it easy."

Thanks, Doc. Will you be back again this week?

Yes, if it doesn’t snow too much. My horse and sled are good for about six inches of snow; anything over that, and I stay home until it packs or melts.

It looks as if it’s going to be a long winter, said Harry. It’s only the middle of November and the snow’s already falling.

This isn’t Virginia, said Doc. It snows here anywhere from the middle of October through the end of April, and some of them can be real doozy’s. I’ll talk with Rebecca now, but just take it easy for a couple of weeks.

Oh, before you go, could you pick these things up for me at the other store, not Willard’s? I have a draft for their approximate amount. If you need more, let me know and I’ll give you another draft. He handed Doc the list and the check.

Doc looked it over, looked at Harry and said, I’d be glad to.

Doc left the room, and almost immediately, Marigold brought Harry a clean set of clothes. She even helped Harry put them on. She would stop when she saw Harry wince from the pain caused by moving his limbs. He told her that he was very grateful for all her help, but didn’t get much of a reaction from her.

Harry was able to get out of bed and wander around for five to ten minutes without sitting down. However, he still couldn’t descend the steps and had his dinner in his room.

The following day, Willard brought home some slippers for Harry to wear around the house. He also brought home a parka and nice woolen scarf for Harry. He didn’t expect Harry to go outdoors, but felt that it might encourage Harry to get better a little faster. He did. Within the week he was able to go down and up the stairs, and have dinner with the family.

Willard wasn’t wounded too badly at the store. He just suffered a graze to his chest. He was up and about the very next day. He did feel grateful to Harry since he believed that the drovers would have shot him and taken the Winchesters rifles. Willard put a rifle aside to give to Harry as a Christmas present.

Over the next few weeks, Rebecca was very good to Harry. She treated him as a son, and taught him how to run the ranch, well, all the chores and paperwork it took to run the ranch. When he learned enough about ranching, she asked him to do some research she was putting off. All the information was available in a number of documents that she received in the mail from Perry and Harris. So, Harry had some things to do.

Marigold became a little scarce, leaving early in the morning to go to the mission and returning home just before supper. After she ate, she often retired to her room. On a few occasions, she did hang around long enough to let the family know that Isabella Hayes was doing really well in the lead role of her operetta. Isabella was the daughter of Margarita Hayes who was the cook at the mission. Marigold and Isabella grew up together, and Margarita acted as Marigold’s mother when the Chief objected to having her on the reservation.

Marigold said that there was talk that the Isabella’s troupe might travel to San Francisco for a run there. There was even talk that the company would visit other cities as well.

Harry felt badly because he thought that he was the reason for Marigold’s being away so often. He wondered why she didn’t like him anymore. She was a little testy the few times that they talked. He remembered being crotchety, but didn’t think it was that bad, though. He wished he was well enough to be on his own, but he still needed help in taking care of himself.

Two weeks passed and Harry was mending well enough to catch a ride into Jackson with the foreman, Ray. He needed a cane when walking to take the strain off his back. He was still unable to take care of himself sufficiently and returned to the ranch after each visit to town.

On their third trip into town, he was sitting in the saloon with Doc and Elisha when a familiar figure walked in. It was the tall lanky stranger, Tom Barton, that he first saw on the trail heading for Togwotee Pass and who later stopped in the Marshal’s office to inform Harry that he was a Time Ranger. He stopped in to accuse Harry of being a time fugitive. He wanted to know why Harry should not be sent back to his original time. When the Ranger found out that Harry seemed to have no past or future in this reality, he calmly read to Harry the rules of Time Travel. But because he couldn’t find the proper reality to return Harry, Barton had to let Harry stay.

Barton went to the bar and ordered a beer. He looked around the room and spotted the empty chair at Harry’s table. He walked over and asked if he could join their group. All said they would be happy to let him have the last empty chair in the saloon. This was one of the busiest days in a while. Hal Lovett, the owner, had a sale on brats, fries and beer. Harry was wearing his Deputy badge, so he got free brats, even though he wasn’t, strictly speaking, on duty. He just got in the habit of wearing it when he was in town, but it did pay off at times.

The stranger introduced himself to the table as Tom Barton. He said he was a geologist for a large mining company. He was looking around these parts for any outcropping of stones that contained metal ores for their mining operation. Harry knew that Barton needed a cover story, so he said nothing. Then Barton asked Harry if he was the one that got shot in the back and lived to tell about it. Harry just smiled. Barton was really playing it as if he didn’t know Harry at all, so Harry played along. He did appear to be a little different from the person that Harry met in his office, but nothing that Harry could put a finger on. Not wanting to implicate the doctor in a possible time travel tale, Harry improvised a little and told the story about the shirt that Doc told Harry.

He kicked Doc very lightly in the foot as he began, Ya know, I’m one lucky hombre. On my days off, I love to visit a little mesa that’s out in the Teton’s. I take out a bottle of wine and a piece of beef with some cheese and bread and spend the afternoon just being lazy out there. Often, some friends join me. This one day, however, I was alone and I came across a guy that appeared to be sleeping. When I went to wake him up, I found that he was quite dead. He had a knapsack lying on the ground beside him. I picked it up and started to look through it to see if there was any kind of identification. That’s when I heard a roll of thunder and spotted a funny funnel cloud that looked like a small tornado. I got scared and backed away. Well, this funnel cloud ran right over the man’s body, and then disappeared along with the man’s body. I looked all over for it, but if it was a tornado as it appeared to be, the body could’ve ended up anywhere. I didn’t find any identification in the knapsack, but I did find a funny looking shirt. I tried it on and it fit fairly well, and it’s a very warm shirt even though it’s made out of a very thin material. I wear it all the time when it’s cold and I was fortunate to have it on the day I was shot. The bullets didn’t penetrate the shirt, but they sure did put a hurt on my back. I still have to use a cane to get around. But I guess that’s little as compared with bein’ dead.

You are lucky, said Barton.

He’s even luckier than he knows, said Doc, Those bullets got mighty close to his spinal cord and could have done major damage if one of them was hit.

Elisha Krock, a friend to all at the table, a professional card player and owner of a number of profitable railroad right-of-ways, didn’t say anything. He just looked as surprised as the stranger, who said, Do you have the shirt that you wore with you?

Harry lifted his sweater and showed the stranger his shirt.

I’m not taking if off, though!

The stranger laughed and finished his beer. He said he had to be moving along, and it was nice passing the time of day with them. The entire table said, Likewise, and then the stranger was gone. They all wondered what that was about.

Elisha said, I didn’t know about the shirt. I just assumed that you were recovering from gunshot wounds. No one tells me anything!

Everyone including Harry had a good laugh at that remark.

A little while later, Ray rushed into the saloon and motioned to Harry.

We have to go, he said. Marigold never showed up at the Mission this morning, and I saw her leave the ranch. I want to get back to the ranch to make sure she’s home.

Harry, quickly put on his parka and scarf, and rushed out as fast as his aching back would let him. They got back to the ranch in an hour, with Harry being in a lot of pain because of the roughness of the road. The pinto was in the corral, and both Ray and Harry breathe a sigh of relief. As they pulled up to the house, Rebecca rushed out and told them that although the pinto returned home, Marigold was nowhere around. Rebecca was concerned that she was abducted by Screaming Eagle’s family who were looking for revenge for his killing. Harry asked Ray to saddle Mr. Lucky. He was going to look for Marigold. Ray and Rebecca tried to dissuade him until a posse could be formed, but Harry was adamant. He was the cause of Screaming Eagle’s death, and he was the one that they should be looking for.

And then Harry said something very strange, I really don’t belong to this time period anyway and I’m just going to set things right now, so please, don’t try to stop me.

A look of confusion appeared on the faces of both Ray and Rebecca. Harry knew they didn’t understand what he meant, but Ray finally did saddle Mr. Lucky after Harry made a couple very painful attempts, and wouldn’t quit. Harry made sure that the Henry was in its scabbard and his gun belt was full of bullets. Ray helped him climb aboard Mr. Lucky, but it was very slowly, because of the pain he was still feeling. He told them that he would back track the pinto which should be very easy because of the four inches of snow that fell the night before. He thought that the tracks would probably end up at the Indian’s current camp which was in the main canyon on the way to Yellowstone. Then he followed the pinto’s trail at a pace just short of excruciatingly painful.

An hour later, he found the area where Marigold was intercepted. It looked as if there was a brief scuffle, but there was no blood on the ground. The tracks did indeed lead back to the Indian’s camp in the canyon. In another hour, Harry was approaching the canyon entrance. He could see the Indian sentries lining the way in. His nervousness caused a spike of pain to traverse his spine, and he almost lost the saddle. But he calmed his emotions and continued his steady progress through the sentries and into the Indian camp. No one stopped him. He approached a large tepee belonging to the Chief, Mighty Oak, who was standing right in front of it, and, he was mighty, indeed. He was a tall, very muscular man. He had a large headpiece lined with various feathers; the majority of them were eagle, with a number of Falcon feathers spread proportionally throughout the headpiece. The headpiece had a nice soft blue sash that held all the feathers as it extended down to the back of his knees. A large buffalo skin was draped around his massive shoulders and extended down just below his knees. He had large deerskin boots that fit over his deerskin pants and terminated just below the knees. Each boot looked as if it had a beaver pelt folded over the top. Harry figured that the entire boot must be lined with beaver.

Harry brought Mr. Lucky to about three feet from the Chief and looking him straight in the eye requested an audience. The Chief invited him to dismount and join him in the tepee. He watched as Harry very slowly dismounted from Mr. Lucky.

Magnificent animal, said the Chief. How could you afford an animal like that?

I inherited him, said Harry.

The Chief smiled and said I heard about your recent encounters and am wondering how you stayed in the saddle to reach our camp?

Harry was surprised that the Chief knew who he was, and that he was having back problems. He wondered just how much the Chief knew.

You speak better English than I do, said Harry. Where did you go to school?

Back East at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, said the Chief.

Harry couldn’t believe it. His niece went there for a couple of years before transferring to a college in upstate New York. Harry was a Hokie at heart. He wondered if the Turkey was the school mascot in this time period.

I’m from Virginia, said Harry.

I know, said the Chief.

How much do you know? asked Harry, almost sounding a little frustrated.

I think I know it all, said the Chief.

Well then, you know that I’m here to get Marigold. She’s an innocent player in the scheme of things today.

Yes, she is. But unfortunately, she belongs to this tribe and we have a warrior who claims her as his property, bride if you will.

Well, I think she belongs to me, and I don’t think she is part of this tribe. Chief Grey Cloud married her mother, but Marigold is not Chief Grey Cloud’s daughter. That is why she was never integrated into the tribe. I think he was jealous of Marigold’s real father and could never bring himself to acknowledge Marigold as his wife’s daughter, or as part of the tribe. So she grew up at the Mission and while her mother was alive, was cared for by her Aunt Margarita. When her mother died, Marigold was adopted by the Hill family. And this whole ruse was carried out just so your tribe would not attack the Mission. Anyway, that’s how I read it.

The Chief just sat there studying Harry as if to look into his soul to see if he were lying about anything. But Harry just gazed back at the Chief’s right eye without wavering.

Little Bear wants revenge. His brother, that pain-in-the-ass, Screaming Eagle, got himself killed attacking the stagecoach that was carrying Marigold’s foster mother. He did it because he thought if the mother was dead, he could marry Marigold, said the Chief.

Chief, I was there. In fact, I killed Screaming Eagle. That son of a bitch attacked Mrs. Hill in the stagecoach depot with a stone tomahawk. It would have been revenge, but, I happened to get between them and finally stabbed him with Uarto’s knife. So if Little Bear wants revenge, he can have me and let Marigold go.

I don’t know if it will be that easy. Did you kill Uarto, too?

I thought you knew everything, said Harry, pausing just long enough to add a little sorrow to his confession. No, I didn’t kill Uarto. He happened to get attacked by a grizzly bear who took a chunk out of his neck. I was there, though. I tried to stop the bleeding, but it was no use.

Uarto was one hell of a fighter. He could take on any two of the warriors in this tribe and make short work of them. Anyway, I digress. I think you will have to meet Little Bear in combat. I don’t think you can stand up to him with your bad back.

Maybe I can talk him out of combat. I really don’t want to kill anybody anyway. I’ve too many bodies on my conscience now. From what I understand, each time Screaming Eagle went to Mrs. Hill’s to fetch Marigold, Little Bear was with him, and he was trying to dissuade Screaming Eagle from marrying her. So, I don’t think he likes her anyway and should be willing to set aside his animosity.

I don’t think talking will do it, but you can try. If he buys talking, fine, but if not, you can use any or all of the conventional weapons, lance, bow, tomahawk, and knife.

No, no said Harry. "Strap a gun on him, or give him a rifle. I know you have them, and we’ll do a gun fight, none of this macho stuff. It’s kill or be killed. Run that by him!