"AMERICAN RIVER CALIFORNIA TERRITORY 1848" "Looks good on the back of a horse." "It's the Indian in him." "You should not have traded cows for the pony." "We have so little." "Well, we'll get by." "Don't worry." "Look at him." "Ma, did you see me?" "My son has his father's spirit." "Too much, I think." ""The Mohican now found an opportunity to make a powerful thrust with his knife." "Magua suddenly relinquished his grasp and fell backward without motion, and seemingly without life."" " Now go to bed." " Just a little more?" "It's late." "Please, Uncle Jethro?" "All right, a little more." ""'Well done for the Delawares." "Victory to the Mohicans,' cried Hawkeye, once more elevating the butt of the long and fatal rifle."" "It's time to teach them to read." "They like the telling." "It was the same when I was a girl and we listened to grandfather's stories." "They're sure curious, like their father." "Jacob was always thirsting after something new." "He loved this book." "It is good you tell them book stories." "It's time I bought 'em some new ones." " Afternoon." " Afternoon." "I'm sure hoping' you folks can steer me in the direction of the digs." " I seem to have got myself plumb lost." " Digs?" "Ain't you heard?" "San Francisco's gone crazy." "Fella showing' off gold from Sutter's Mill." "Right up here on the American River." "Gold?" "Somebody's joshing ya." " It's true." " You must be hungry." "Stay." "Eat supper with us." "Thank you kindly, ma'am, but I best be on my way." "There'll be plenty more on my tail, I can tell you that." "It'll be picked clean in no time." " Could it be true?" " Maybe." "SAN FRANCISCO" "Excuse me, I'm here to see Mr Mathers." "I've heard nothing, Margaret." "Damn it, Mathers, you hire me a team." "You simmer down!" "Is there no one who's met a Virginian wheelwright?" " No men who served with Fremont?" " I ask everyone who comes through," " like I told you I would." " Hands off!" "That wagon is mine!" "You're wasting my time, girl, and your own." "Best let it go." "I can't." "It's my father." "UPPER KLAMATH LAKE OREGON TERRITORY" "Captain, these aren't the Indians that killed your men." "Those are Modoc people." "These are Klamath." "Stand away from that prisoner." "This chastisement will serve as fair warning to all renegade tribes." "I joined the Army to open up new lands, but by opening them, we had changed them forever." "I'd had my bellyful of soldiering and paid too high a price for it, in my heart and in my soul." "My family, or so I thought then, was forever lost to me." "Jethro had taken my place, and they lived in their rightful peace." "Once I had found that peace with myself in the solitude of the mountains, and hoped I would again." "I don't know." "I heard someone say they're looking for gold." "Really?" "Jake!" "Jake!" "Jake!" "Jake!" "Jake!" "Hey, look!" "All right!" "All right!" "Ten." "Twenty." "Twenty-five." "Don't pass me by so easily, friend." "For only a fraction of an ounce of gold, yours can be the secret of vitality." " Fancy a poke?" " Sorry?" "Only five dollars, worth every penny." "Decided to try your hand?" "Yeah, maybe." "Some here's made enough for two lifetimes already." " I'm Martin, Martin Jarrett." " Jethro Wheeler." "I've seen the elephant and lived to tell the tale." "$397.17." "Just like that." "I'll be wishing you luck, Jethro." "You just pulled that out of the water?" "Think on the Lord's word, brothers." "What shall it profit a man to gain the world, but lose his own soul?" "Move along, preacher." "Take your doxology work someplace else." "You're scarin' away all the gold." "You, brother, turn back now!" "Turn back before the wages of sin exact their fearful toll." "It's none of my business, reverend, but if the Lord didn't want a man to profit from those rocks in the ground, why'd he put 'em there?" "OREGON TRAIL" "The land cries in pain." "Such is the white man's road, my son." "Why don't we stop these white men?" "You can not stop the white man any more than you can stop the sun and moon." "Do they not have homes in this land across the great river?" "The white man belongs to no place, Brings Horse, and where he comes, death follows him." "We must always walk different roads." "SAN FRANCISCO" "Quit gawking, get back to work." "There's beds to be made." "I run a respectable house." "You'll see to it that it looks respectable." "Gentlemen, not a twitch." "Hey, you lookin' for someone, gal?" "You ask me cos..." "I know everybody." "Step aside, sir, please." "I have business with your officer." "Well, listen to that, huh?" "This little gal's got business, huh?" "Back to your work, private." "Can I help you, miss?" "Are there any men here who served with Captain Fremont?" "Some in the parade marched under his flag." "There's a few Bear Flaggers." "Who you lookin' for?" "Jacob Wheeler." "Sure, I know him." "Come with me." "I tell you, I've never seen a mule skinner like old Jacob." " Mule skinner?" " Yes, ma'am." "Now, I'll do for you, but first you got to do for me." "No." "Please..." "It's all right." "It's all right." "You're safe with me." "You have to listen to me." "You have to leave here." "Leave here immediately." "You have to trust me." "You must leave." "This one appears to be in your size." " It's too pretty." " Nonsense." "No, I have many of these..." "for my sittings, of course." "Thank you, Mr Biggs." "Please..." "Call me Ethan." "I shall call you Margaret, all right?" "You're very kind." "You must allow me to make your portrait sometime." "I couldn't." "I think you could." "Is there luck on your side?" "It's not very big." "If you knew what you were talking about, you'd know that's probably worth about $30." " You have found more of this?" " Not yet, but I will." " Can I hold it?" " Sure you can." "You've never seen anything like it." "Hundreds in the river pulling out a fortune without even trying." "It's nature's bounty, and it's right there for the taking." "It cannot be so easy." "I tell you, it's sitting in the water waiting to be found, and I'm, by God, gonna find it." "I want to do what's right by all of us." " You have." " No, no, a man can always do better," " and that's just what I mean to do." " You could fix wheels again." "I'm no wheelwright, and neither was Jacob." "You know that." "Your brother would not care about such things." "He could be in the middle of some stream right now making his fortune." "He sure ain't here." "It will be cold tonight." "Please bring in the wood." "Abe can do it." "Go on." "Day's hard prospecting takes it right out of a man." "I mean, I've looked after them since my brother..." "Like I said, when I'm done here, they're not gonna want for anything." "Me, I'm going up river." "Spent most of that 400 on supplies." "Some making more coin selling a man his three squares than standing in the water all day." "Water gets right into my bones." "You gotta get yourself one of these." "Every now and then, it warms a man's body and his spirit." "Hey, can you get my friend here one of these special flasks, dig it out of the back?" "$15." "That's robbery, that's what that is." "Doesn't mean I don't want it." "Told you." "How do you get this thing out?" "One of them hookers knows how." "This winter will be hard if the barn is not finished." " Our animals won't have shelter." " I got no time." "Let it be." "I found gold and you want me to pound nails." "He has no right to speak to you like that." "Father would know what is right." "Go back to bed." "What's he saying?" "When I strike it, son, it'll be for all of us." "I'm not your son." "Mind your manners or I'll come strap you!" "You ain't strapping me." "Do as I say, High Wolf." "Go." "Boy's got no call to act like that." "Treated him like he was my own." "My own!" "There's no meat." "The miners have chased away all the game." "That or Abe's not much of a hunter." "You better start providing for your mother!" "Like you are?" "What'd you say?" " Nothing." " What'd you say?" "!" "Nothing!" "It's time you learned respect." "Understand?" " Enough!" "Sit down." "Eat." " I'm tired..." " I'm sorry." " Stay away from her!" " Get off me!" " Stop!" "Jethro, stop!" "No!" "God." "Where will you go?" "Away from here." "He does not know what he does." "The yellow dust he seeks poisons his mind." "You don't need him." "That is not why I stay." "I stay because this is the home I have made." "Don't worry on my account." "There's always work for a good rider." "You are no longer a boy." "There are only a few coins here, but I give them to you." "Remember that you are Lakota." "You will be strong." "Dog Star's father had taught him as a boy to keep the winter count, which told the story of the people's journey." "Now it became his responsibility to preserve the count for the next generation." "Your paints always tell the same story." "The whites become more plentiful and each year the earth grows a little smaller." "When they have found all the yellow metal they need, they will leave." "You can't even see what your own eyes show you." "Come, brother." "Do you know this place, brother?" "Here we hunted our first buffalo." "Come." "When we were boys, you guided me onto the right path..." "Now it is you who has lost the way." "There's no need for that, ma'am!" "I'm David Wheeler." "Jethro's cousin." "Sure is good, ma'am." "I haven't eaten like this for a month of Sundays." "How did you find us?" "Just asked around Sacramento." "This isn't exactly down the road from Wheelerton." "Well, the family got a letter from Margaret." "She had this notion Jacob was still alive, wanted to tell him she was looking for him if he came by the house." "The girl got it into her head that he didn't die." "Then Abe got it into his head not to mind me." "Both of them crazy." "I came out West to make my fortune." "I intend to die a rich man." "Not pounding iron." "So, how much you pulled out of that river?" "Some here, some there." "I was hoping we'd partner up." "What have you got to invest, David?" "I've got these, willing to crack and blister until I hit pay dirt." "What do you say, huh?" "Well... yes." "Go ahead." "You see the water like that?" "Swirl it around." "Move it!" "This is my claim!" "This is my claim!" "Well, it's mine now!" "You've had your turn!" "Go on now!" "Go back to the boat!" "It's mine!" "You've had your turn!" "Go back!" "It's my claim now!" " Sons of bitches." " They won't be coming back." "It's my claim now." "Hey, can you spare some dust so I can get a drink?" "Jarrett?" "What happened to you?" "Just down on my luck." "It'll turn." "Thought you headed upriver." "I did, just didn't tap in." "Can you stake me for a drink?" "I'll pay you back when I hit it." "I dreamed a dream the other night that everything was still" "I dreamed that I was carrying my laundry on down the hill" "A piece slipped out and I fell down Now I drag my liver" "Oh, I'll wash my long johns in the icy river" " Hey, Jethro." " What?" "Come here." "Give me a hand." "We're rich." "We're rich." "We're stinking..." "Shut up!" "You want 'em to kill us?" "Shut up!" "Get your coat." "Quick!" "Get my coat off." "Come on." "Come on!" "Let's get out of here." "Is it real?" " Look at that." " How much gold do you think's there?" "It's a big vein." "I'd say a quarter, maybe a third." " Maybe a half?" " Maybe." " You must take it from here quickly." " We gotta get this assayed." "The river's up." "We'll go downstream to Sacramento." "There's banks there." "We'll set out at dawn." "We gotta move fast." " We'll take Jake to cover our backs." " No, he is a boy." "He's old enough to make sure we keep what's ours." "This is not his doing." "Don't make him a part." "You never were for this." "You're not happy." "I know I'm not Jacob," " but I tried to do my best." " No one asked you!" "I've made mistakes." "I know that." "But things are gonna be different now." "All right?" "If you were white, you'd know having that rock means everything." "It means everything I ever promised you." "Please." "Please give me a chance to prove it." "Please, I'll show you." "Please." "Please." "I will pack food for you." "Thank you." "I think I'll buy me a grand city house with servants to wait on me, like those plantations back home." "What about you, Jethro?" "What are you gonna do with your half?" "Half." "What are you talking about, half?" "That was my claim." "Oh, you'll get your reward, but you ain't getting half." "I'd say your take is a quarter." "I found it." "I found it!" "You owe me half, you son of a bitch!" "You being family, I'll make it a third." "Take it or leave it." "Now sit down and have a drink." "I found it." "David!" "David!" "David!" "Let go!" "Let go!" "ONE YEAR LATER" "SAN FRANCISCO 1850" "Four." "Five." "Six." "Seven." "Eight." "Nine." "And we're done." "Thank you very much." "My assistant should have this portrait ready for you momentarily." "Margaret?" "I'll just be a moment." "Like this perhaps?" "I think so." "I was so young, but I still see that face sometimes." "Well, we'll get one of these pictures engraved and post it everywhere." "Margaret..." "When are you going to introduce me to your mother?" "You're not ashamed of me, are you?" "Ashamed?" "I mean, after all, I am a foreigner." "That's not it." "Then what?" "There are things about me that you don't know, Ethan." "Then tell me." "I'm not pure white." "My mother is Lakota." "Out here, none of that matters." "Out here, everyone has a clean slate." " Hey, boy, more coffee." " Yes, sir." "Next." "Thirty cents." "I want something back." "Please." "Leave her be." "All right." "Just saying hello." "More food." "More bread." "Hurry." "Mother?" "I clean the white men's clothes." "I feed those who are hungry." "More and more they come." "They pay me with the gold that stole away Jethro's spirit." "Some I keep to make our lives better." "Some I give back to the Earth as an offering." "Surely you can afford to leave now." "I will never leave this place." "Why not?" "The spirits spoke to me in a dream." "They told me that one day your father would return to this place." "The spirits." "Dreams." "You have gone to the big city and forgotten the ways of our people." "The ways of our people must change or they will die." "That is what I have learned in San Francisco." "I see you hold my daughter in your heart, Ethan Biggs, but the new ways are not always better." "No, I make no such claim." "But yes, it's true." "I do hold your daughter in my heart." "So it is with my own husband." "Even when I was wife to his brother," "I was bound to him alone." "If Wakan Tanka blesses you with such a bond, there is nothing that can destroy it." "Those whom God hath joined together, let no man put asunder." "The roads of the people and the white man could not be kept apart." "The White Father in the place called Washington sent word that all the nations of the plains should gather to hear his words." "If they offer us enough, we must consider it." "There is no bargaining with whites." "It is better to stay away from them." "No, it is better to speak for our people or they will have no voice." "I will not have my sons fight their father's battles." "From all directions, many nations came to the great smoke to show their desire to live at peace with the whites." "FT." "LARAMIE, NEBRASKA TERRITORY SEPTEMBER, 1851" "The Lakota called it The Council at Long Meadows and our friends the Cheyenne called it The Horse Creek Treaty." "To the whites, it was The Treaty of Fort Laramie." ""Article five:" "The aforesaid Indian nations do hereby recognise and acknowledge the following tracts of country, included within the metes and boundaries hereinafter designated..."" "The Broken Hand who spoke for the White Father divided the Earth among the nations as if he were the creator himself." "He gave each nation land they already owned." "The White Father then told the nations to live in peace with one another and to allow the wagons of the whites to pass through without harm." "For that, he would give us cattle to eat and fine things, but for any wrong the people did, the people would make payment." "You cannot put stock in an Indian's word, Mr Fitzpatrick." "I can assure you, Lieutenant Grattan, that if these people wished us harm, we'd all be quite dead." "Once they've collected their trinkets, they'll go back to pillaging." "Tell me, lieutenant, how long have you laboured to keep our frontier safe?" "This is my first posting, sir." " West Point, is it?" " It is." "You'll find that the reality out here is a lot different from what the generals preach." "You'd do well to remember that, young man." "The Washington father has promised food and supplies for fifty straight winters." "That is a promise no man can make." "We must give them the chance to prove their honor." "If we don't, there will never be peace." "Enough." "Go dance now." " It's a gift?" " Yes, it is." "Up near Yuba Pass, a wagon broke a wheel and a trapper fixed it." "What's going on?" "What is it?" "I just met a fella." "Says he may have seen Jacob fixing a wheel." "Look after the store until we return." "Make sure he behaves himself." "A steady pace will get you there in a couple of days," " and I want to wish you luck." " All right." "Safe journey." "Don't you move." "I'll blast your guts down your backside." " I'm not a thief." " Shut up!" "You don't look like a thief." "You don't know the woods." "You announced yourself a mile away." "We're looking for someone." "We're looking for Jacob Wheeler." "Light Shines?" "Margaret, is that you?" " Daddy." " Hold that gun." "Daddy." "LAKOTA TERRITORY 1851" "You will know what it is to be a father." "It is not an easy thing, but it is good." "You have been a good son and you will be a good father." "So much has changed since you were a boy." "I hope life will be easier for your son." "And if it is a daughter?" "Then you will make a son." "It is a boy." "Good." "Here is your son, White Crow." "What will his name be?" "His name shall be Red Lance." "It is a good name." "Meet your grandson, father." "My grandson." "Please, next." "Fine looking squaw, ain't she?" "She got a good-looking daughter." "I wouldn't mind making her acquaintance." "Might even take me a bath." "I never known an Injun gal do wash like her." "Her husband must have clean britches every day." "Twice on Sunday." "You don't need britches." " Move on." " Bet you ain't wearing none" " under that skirt." " We're just gonna have to find out." "Easy there, partner." "Mind that scattergun, friend." "She knows how to use it." "Just get along and leave us alone, mister!" " Look at that Indian half-breed." " Let go of me!" "Hand over your pistols and clear on out." " Got no call to take them." " Lucky I don't kill you." " Who might you be?" " The man that wings you just so I can carve your scalps and show 'em to you before I kill you." "Jacob Jr, take this, son." " Get on up!" " All right." "Next time you talk to a man's wife, you'll show her some respect." "Get out of here!" "My name's Jacob Wheeler!" "From now on, any of you sons of bitches step out of line, you'll answer to me!" "Anybody want to challenge that?" "From his days as a boy when Tatanka let him live," "Loved by the Buffalo was chased by dark dreams of days yet to come for the Lakota." "He had seen the white man's wheels scarring the land, grinding into the Earth, rolling over all in its path." "A weapon that would make the world a desolate place." "He travelled the land and lived among its peoples seeking an answer to this terrible prophecy." "BRULE VILLAGE NEBRASKA TERRITORY 1854" "Hey, whoa!" "Come on back here!" "This way!" "Shoo!" "Shoo!" "Come." "Come here." "Take back this cow before it does more damage." "Don't you want your animal?" "Come." "I claim this cow for the damage it did." "Take it back to them." "If you don't the soldiers will come." "It ruined my tipi." "I see trouble over this cow." "We must go to the fort in the morning and speak with the Soldier Chief." "They're here!" "Soldiers." "Conquering Bear, a cow was taken from a wagon train that passed this village, and I demand you return this cow and turn over the thief." "He wants the thief who stole the cow." "The cow was not stolen." "It ran into our village and did much damage." "Straight Foretop called to the white man to take it, but he walked away." "He left the cow as payment." "Straight Foretop killed the cow." "We feasted on its bad meat." "High Forehead killed the cow, and they ate it." "He's Minneconjou." "Tell them everything." "You tell Little Soldier Chief all that I say." "Tell them everything." "He's drunk." "We will give payment for the cow." "It was old and injured, but we will give a mule in its place." "They're not gonna give you this man." "They give you something for the cow." "The man who took this cow will go to the stockade." "He must turn this man over to me now." "You must give him Straight Foretop to put in the iron house." "Tell Soldier Chief we will sit and smoke a pipe and settle this." "We will pay five horses for the cow." "He wants to sit and smoke with you." "The United States Army does not bargain with thieves." "Ready on those guns." " It's just a cow." " Ready those guns, or I'll have you in the stockade for insubordination." "Conquering Bear, you are ordered by the U.S. Army to hand over this cow thief or suffer the consequences." "Five horses is a good payment." "What's he saying?" "Will he give me this man?" "No." "He's drunk." " Fire." " Sir?" "Fire, damn you!" "Fire!" "Don't fight." "Don't fight." "The people's pain was deep and their anger beyond control." "The white man had shown himself to be without honour." "The Treaty of Long Meadows was to be no more." "The wrath of the White Father in Washington rained down and became a flood that could not be stopped." "Everything seemed to be disappearing into a great hole in the Earth." "The vision of Growling Bear was coming to pass." "Loved by the Buffalo was afraid." "6 YEARS LATER" "The West is a place, not a way to live." "Others would come to these lands seeking to escape the darkness back east," "LAWRENCE, KANSAS TERRITORY 1860 but the shadows would follow them, as they did Uncle Benjamin's son, Samson, and his family, the next Wheelers to set their wagons toward the promise of the setting sun." "It's done, like you said it would be." "Lincoln elected president." "South Carolina to secede from the Union." "This wheel could use a rim, Jeremiah." "Yes, sir." "I measured it out for you." "Like I was saying, sir, if there's work," "I'm looking to get hired on." "I been pounding iron a long time now." "I even had my own shop on the plantation where I was born." "Now, I done fixed wheels, shod horses." "I even turn me some real nice French Quarter banisters too." "I been freed by my master, and I got papers to prove it." " If it's food you need..." " With all due respect, sir," "I'll work harder and faster than two men, and I don't expect much, just some place to lay my head when the day's done." "He could have the room at the back of the shop." "I'll work for nothing till you see I ain't lying." "What's your name?" "Henry." "Henry Foster, sir." "My sons, Aaron and Jeremiah." "Shake hands, boys." "The Lord did not intend for these Western lands to be cursed with the scourge of slavery." "Virginia may be lost, but we must endeavour to make sure Kansas stays free." "Samson Wheeler." "You'll work for wages." "I won't have it any other way." "Yes, sir." "Thank you, sir." "Thank you." "All right then, Henry, let's get to work." "Yes, sir." "Mr Lincoln has made a proposal to span the country with a telegraph and a railroad." "A most righteous enterprise." "Do you think there will be war?" "Men driven to extremes are capable of anything, but war and hatred only breed more war and hatred." "Things will go hard on our people back in Wheelerton." "Let those that make war look to their consciences for forgiveness and love as we have to ours." "Why isn't Clara helping?" "Oh, I do hate to pull her from her sewing." "The girl will never learn to make a home if you allow her to avoid her responsibilities." "I believe she is called to a higher purpose, Samson." "Someday, women in New Orleans or Atlanta or perhaps even New York will be wearing her gowns." "Frivolities." "Sheer frivolities." "Come in." "Clara, your mother requires your help for supper." "Papa, look at this." "Isn't it beautiful?" "It isn't done yet, but..." "Do you like it?" "It's quite beautiful." "It is, isn't it?" "You know, Clara, your mother might appreciate a new dress." "For material." "I know just what to buy." "Thank you, Papa!" "I'll make her the best dress in Lawrence." "Yes, you will." "There are those on our borders who seek to deter us from the great cause which we have made our own." "I speak of the murderous bushwhackers who refer to themselves as Quantrill's Raiders!" "I say to you today, we will defend our homes, and we will defend our beliefs, and we will not shy from blood until every godless slave-holding citizen of Missouri is cast into a burning pit of hellfire!" "Mr Lane, why don't you save your guff for all those blue-bellied Yankees back east, you and all your Jayhawkin' Kansas trash?" "We're not gonna stand for you comin' around here and dictating' to us with your nigger worshipping'." "You talk about hellfire, Mr Lane?" "I reckon we're gonna make things hot enough around here, and that is a fact, sir." "I seen your faces, and I'm gonna kill y'all." "I'm gonna murder every last one of ya, and I'm gonna like it!" "John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in his grave" "John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in his grave" "John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in his grave" "His soul is marching on" "NEVADA TERRITORY" "The pay was $ 100 a month, and the distance was 2,000 miles from St. Joe, Missouri to Sacramento, California." "The ad read," ""Wanted: young, skinny, wiry fellows not over 18." "Must be experienced riders willing to risk death daily." "Orphans preferred. "" "Not many were orphans, but like my son, Abe Wheeler, they were all hungry for freedom and a taste of adventure." "And they weren't long finding it." "Sends it off with the Pony Express." " Somehow..." " Any sign of Indians?" "Well, not until just now." "Careful." "Abe Wheeler has seen the back of every station from, what?" "St. Louis clear to Sacramento?" "And more than once too." "Is that so?" "Well, I rode me 60 miles today." "How many miles you make?" "Of course, I done better." "I do my talking in the saddle." "Well, you got yourself a race, Abe." "Yeah!" "CALIFORNIA 1861" "Ten years had passed since I'd been restored to those I loved." "While the country lay on the verge of disunion, for us that decade was a time of great healing." "Never again would I know such peace and contentment." "Mother, Father, everyone's waiting." "Hurry please." "Ethan's losing the light." "Right, now, Mr Wheeler, could I have you move a fraction closer to Mrs Wheeler?" "And for the sake of symmetry, Jacob Jr, could you please change places with Corn Flower?" "Thank you." "All right." "Not a twitch." "And in this time of terrible trial, we ask that you give strength to Mr Lincoln's soldiers and keep our son Abraham safe, wherever he may be." "And bless our Lakota family." "Bless their wives and bless their children." "Amen." " Amen." " Let's eat." " Now, Ethan..." " Yes, sir." "Tell me the truth." "Does Margaret treat her man the same way her mother does me?" " Jacob." " It's all right." "Margaret is her mother's daughter in many respects." " Pass the potatoes." " Yes." "Yeah, but can she cook?" "That is a very dangerous question for me to answer right now." "Aren't you eating?" "It's time for me to go, Pa." "There's a war on now and California's declared for the Union." "It's time I set out on my own." "Thought on where you're headed?" "North, maybe, then east across the Territories." "I'll just let the wind blow me where it wants to." "Well, I'd like you to have my pistol." "I feel better knowin' you're carrying a gun that's already done some killin'." "And knows what it's about." "Jacob." "There are plenty out there who mean harm, so don't you be afraid to use it." "Better that than gettin' killed." "You understand me?" "Yes, sir." "I think it's coming today." "He says it's from New York." "Spare a penny?" "It's very nice, but no, thank you." "Thank you." "Quantrill's men did this." "All right." "Get to work." " I reckon I best be movin' on." " No." "To give in to such terror is to admit defeat." "I'll not have any of that kind of talk." "Samson." "Such convictions are all well and good for the boys, but I worry for Clara's sake." "At least allow me to send word to Cousin Daniel in Omaha." "I will not have the girl obliged for her welfare to a man with whom I am not on friendly terms with." " Never have been!" " I beg you." "No more of this!" "GREAT PLAINS OCTOBER, 1861" "As each year passed," "Dog Star continued to count." "The symbols he drew caused him much pain, but he did not abandon the sacred trust which had been placed in him." "His brother Running Fox joked that he saw no difference in the pictures, just more white men every year." "White horseman!" "Let's catch him!" "Let him go!" "Leave him alone." "He rides like a Lakota." "But we can catch him!" "Hey." "Fetch me a horse, damn it!" "Ain't no rush." "We're closing down." "What?" "Pick up your final pay in Sacramento." "We're done in." "He climbs like a squirrel." "It's metal." "From the woods!" "Nephew!" "My little brother!" "Excellent shot, trooper." "Older brother," "I have brought you back your son." "NEBRASKA TERRITORY 1862" "What's he saying?" " Hell if I know." " He's thirsty." "Folks he killed won't be drinkin'." "Thank you." "Drink as much as you want." "Mount up!" "You speak their language." "What of it?" "Half the problem out here is we can't communicate." "Army could use a man like you, if you got a mind to help these people." "If I were you, I'd think about it." "Great lands have opened, and every day settlers arrive needing help." "I've signed on with the Army as a scout and interpreter, and apprehend I may be of some small use in the noble effort to preserve our Union in these Western lands." "Do not worry on my account..." ""For I know I have not yet met my destiny." "I look up at the moon and stars and am comforted knowing that we see the same thing, and that connects us even if we are separated by a great distance." "I remain your loving son, Jacob."" "Do you ever miss your family?" "You are my family." "When I was in my mother's belly, she looked up at the night sky and found the brightest star in it." "You see?" "Right there." "Do you see those stars that are shaped like a dog?" "That is the name she gave me." "Dog Star." "Someday, when you are grandparents, you too will look up to the night sky" "with your grandchildren." "Clara." "Get dressed." "Please, Samson." "Quantrill is burnin' the town." "We cannot allow these marauders to outrage us again." ""Whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek turn to him the other also."" "I've none left to turn, Susannah." "The Lord is a man of war, and this is his right hand." " But not this way!" " No more words." " Papa, what is it?" " Clara, I want you to get out of town." "You and your mama get out of town, no matter what you hear, no matter what you see." " You keep runnin', you promise me?" " Aren't you comin' with us?" "You're a talented girl." "I want you to use your gift." "I want you to use your gift to do good." "You promise me that." "You and your mother get goin'." "I'll come for you when it's over." "Go!" "Please come with us, Papa!" "Go on, now." "Git!" "Go on!" "Hurry, Mama!" "Clara!" "Listen to me and do as I say." "If anything should happen," "I want you to make your way to Cousin Daniel in Omaha." " He'll take good care of you." " Mama!" " All right?" " Mama!" " All right, now, go." " No!" " Clara, go." " Mama!" "Go!" "Run!" "Run!" "Burn every house!" "Kill every man!" "Kansas must be cleansed, and the only way to cleanse it is to kill!" "Get over here!" "Shoot him again!" "You two check those houses!" "You three check the church!" "If you have to fire, stagger your shots." "Give yourself time to reload." "Come on!" "Samson!" "Susannah?" "Susannah!" "Papa, no!" "Too many found the ravages of the West to be unendurable." "Yet there were countless others who called on a courage they never knew they possessed." "Clara Wheeler was one of these rare spirits." "She would survive."