"It's about Maryanne." "I" " I'd Iike" "Mr. Stewart, I'd like to talk to you." "I've come" " I've come to Washburn Creek to talk to you-- oh, good Jesus." "To your home." "I've come to your home to talk to you about Maryanne." "I'd like" "I'd like very much to ask" "Maryanne-- I'd like to talk to you about Maryanne." "It's about-- it's about Maryanne." "Maryanne?" "Hold still." "I don't want to go to bed yet, not now." "Oh, stop your fussing." "Come on." "The splinter already hurts more than pulling it out." "Okay?" "Mary..." " I'm not sleepy." " We'll store you to bed." "You need to take your rest too, Mary, if you want to look pretty when your Irish comes courting tomorrow." "You hush." "Hold still." "What's that?" "Get him over there." "Aster, come." "Come here." " What's happening?" " They were in the Williams house." " Indians?" " Stay with the women." "Down into the root cellar, get." "Let's go." " Come on now." " Come on." "Come on down." "Keep your lamp low and this door locked." "You don't open it no matter what." "Ma!" "Ma!" "Mind your brother now." "Hush." "Josh." "Don't cry." "Be brave for me." "Josh!" "Josh!" "Josh!" "Josh!" "Maryanne?" "Mary?" "Anybody home?" "Mr. Williams, sir, the Stewarts aren't home." "Oh, God." "Oh, Jesus." "Oh!" "The Stewarts are gone." "Easy." "Did Mary say anything to you about leaving?" "No." "What about the Williamses?" "No, you gotta" "Oh, God." "Damn it." "Indians took 'em." "God help 'em." "We've got to get them back." "I hit three men up there." "Really?" "Indians, anyway." "I hit them dead." "Don't feed Dobie your horseshit, Mr. Parcher." "That ain't horseshit." "That's history." "Boy ought to learn where he's come from." "Mind the cursing in front of my boy." "Yes, ma'am." "Great God Almighty, is that coconut cake?" "Mom got it special." "Baked it." "Coconut cake from back East." "10 years back, not a mile from here," "I had to eat a horse to survive." "That's disgusting." "It wasn't my horse." "The point is we're here now eating coconut cake." "Right civilized country." "There's chicken and cornbread." "I know it." "I'll attend to that cornbread directly." "There's a rider." "Listen, cowboy, how about you take your mother in the house?" "He's wearing a funny hat." "I think it's your ranch hand, Mr. Coffey." "Anybody can wear a funny hat." "That ain't Sunday riding." "Go on, take your mother inside." "Let's go, Dobie." "Go on." "Coffey, God damn it, I was having a picnic." "Indians-- they killed" "There." "It's from Mr. Clay." "They took Maryanne, took the whole family." "I can read." "Oh, Jesus." "Did the Indians kill them little Williams girls too?" "No, looks like Mr. Williams did." "That's a hell of a thing to say." "If we're dealing with Crow or Ute," "Dobie could see things a boy shouldn't have to." "I've made up my mind, Will." "You've already lost a man to the Indians." "I don't want to risk another." "I don't have a man in this house." "I've got a boy." "Take him to Washburn Creek and bring him back." "Maybe then I'll have two." " Them horses ready?" " Yes, sir." "We're all set, Mr. Parcher." "Then let's get to it." "Mr. Parcher's lived through everything this country could throw at him." "You stay close and mind him." "You'll be fine." "Oh." "She should have bled out more." "Same with the girls." "Ida and Daphne." "I think those were their names." "You want to wait outside?" "No." "Good." "I wonder what kind of weapon makes a wound like that." "No scalping knife I know of." "Maybe some kind of chisel." "That gun only fires twice." "He would have had to have reloaded it if he wanted to kill everybody." "Any Christian woman would prefer dying to capture." "Mr. Williams had time to reload because his wife gave it to him." "If it came to that," "I hope you'd be strong enough to take care of your mother." "I suppose a wild buffalo could have done this." "Looks like you've found yourself a hole in the ground there, Will." "That and four corpses and six missing, most of those being women and children." "Hold up now." "It's in my command." "I gotta know who we're hunting." "How long have the Indians had them?" "Near a day now." "Mm, well, that's more than enough time for those women to have been" "Yes, so why aren't we on the trail?" "You want to go face an Indian war party on your lonesome?" "Those blanketheads will peel you like an orange, boy." "Follow along." "We'll do this thing right." "Don't worry." "We'll find them." "Hey, you all right?" "We should be going after them." "You knew these people?" "I do." "The Stewarts anyway." "That's Maryanne." "She yours?" "I was working on her." "~ Alas!" "and did my Savior bleed ~" "~ And did my Sovereign die?" "~" "~ Would He devote that sacred head ~" "~ For such a worm as I?" "~" "~ Thy body slain ~" "~ Sweet Jesus, Thine ~" "~ And bathed in its own blood ~" "~ While the firm mark of wrath divine ~" "~ His soul in anguish stood. ~" "Christ." "Who's Henry Victor's Indian?" "That's Ten Bear, a Crow Indian." "The man's paid for his worth." "Hey, Walnut, Mr. Victor's canteen's dry." "He called you Walnut." "Yeah, he did." "Is that your name?" "The name's Callaghan." "Callaghan." "You Irish?" "That man that calls me Walnut believes he's better than me 'cause nobody ever owned him." "But I'm not enlisted." "I cook for Fort Lincoln, but I'm paid." "I can leave anytime I want." "You understand?" "Sure." "I'm Fergus Coffey." "Coffey." "You black?" "Damnation." "What?" "We're not gonna find any kidnapped wives at a reservation." "I know it." "We could set off on our own." "Might could, though it would only be four of us to we don't know how many 'skins." "We have to find the Stewarts." "If we can do that with Henry Victor's help-- fine." "If not" "I guess you've had every chance to and ain't killed us yet." "Whoa." "Whoa." "Whoa." "Whoa." "Mr. Parcher." "Hey hey." "Sorry, Dobie." "It must have stepped in a prairie-dog hole." "Listen, cowboy, why don't you hump on ahead and see how much further we're gonna press on before camp?" "Yes, sir." "Go on now." "Why do you spend so much time rubbing that boy's belly?" "He already thinks you're Jesus Crockett." "I'm courting his mother." "That's Gertrude Spacks' boy?" "Yeah." "A skinny woman." "Might as well just poke the boy." "That's not a very godly sentiment." " Hey, son." " Mr. Victor, sir, Mr. Parcher told me" "Take a look yonder." "Is that a horse?" "Go on." "He's seen us." "You think I didn't know that?" "Why ain't he running?" "Well, why don't we ask him?" "Parcher." "We don't have time for this, Will." "Every prisoner is gonna slow us." "Yeah, well, I'd rather walk in the right direction than ride with my head up my ass." "What's happening to these Stewart women right now?" "This isn't your outfit, Clay." "This soldiers are under my authority-- mine." "As long as you ride with us, so are you." "That Injun doesn't know shit." "He wouldn't talk if he did." "Mm-hmm, yeah." "He'll talk." "He'll talk." " Hey." " Walnut." "Sorry, Callaghan." "You don't want to see that." "Do you know if he's talked yet?" "Naw, that ain't even the point." "They stopped asking questions a half-hour back." "What is that?" " Hmm?" " What the hell is that?" "It's a tobacco pouch." "It's ugly as shit." "Yeah, come off an Injun, a big buck by the name of" "Sack-o-Tabacky." "Jesus Christ." "What is it?" "Shit, son." "It's a scrotum, Dobie." "I can't say I like Henry Victor." "There's a sack of horseshit." "Christ." "I came close to joining the army after New York." "Impossible to get work here." "No one will hire the Irish on account of us being a bunch of thieves and beggars." "Sounds familiar." "You come to this country alone?" "I had a sister, died of consumption on the boat." "They put her in the water." "They wanted to put everything in the water to save us the infection, but I managed to hold on to a-- what do you call that?" "broach." "It used to belong to Mother." "I gave it to Maryanne Stewart." "He's given up for the night." "Praise God." "Shit." "Hope this gets me fired." "Come on here." "Eat, all right?" "Go on, eat it." "Come on." "My daddy was one of the men behind the rifles that held off the Sioux in the battle for New Ulm." "You know the story of New Ulm, boy?" "Yes, sir." "My father died there." "Well, I hope you know your daddy died noble." "I will raise a drink to your daddy and every man at this fire, for we will make certain that we never see anything like that happen in this country again." "I'll drink to it." "Any reason's a good one." "Who fed my Indian?" "Hmm?" "We don't find those settlers until he talks." "And he don't eat until he talks!" "Now who fed my goddamned Indian?" "Walnut!" "You goddamn--!" "Walnut!" "Where are you?" " Somebody find that" " I fed him." "Why, you ignorant son of a bitch." "Henry." "You raise that gun and the four of you will be on ropes within an hour." "Christ, Henry, he was just gonna shoot you a little bit." "And if Coffey fed him the same shit your cook fed us, he ain't no happier than he was before he ate." "Give it a rest." "Yeah." "This is my command-- mine." "And I will not have my authority undermined." "Apologize to the man for undermining his authority." "I'm sorry for undermining your authority." "Mm-hmm." "Bugle taps." "We're bedding down." "I want three men guard until dawn." "I want guns on the night." "Anyone tries to sneak back into this camp, kill it." "Who's there?" "Hey." "Are you all right?" "Come on, Samuel, get up." "Hey." "Jesus Christ, Samuel, you drunken shit." "What have you got for me here?" "Give me my" "Who's there?" "Wake up, Samuel." "Wake up, Samuel, for God's sake." "Bullshit." "Bullshit." "Bullshit." "Somebody saw those yellow-belly shitheels deserting." "I will not goddamn believe that four men left this camp and no one even goddamn stirred." "What happened?" "'Morning, sweetheart." "Henry Victor lost some of his boys last night." "Yeah?" "Where?" "That's the question." "What's he got to say now?" "We already know that don't work." "What was that?" "He says he likes white men." "He says about another tribe" " Miners." "He didn't say "miners."" "Men mine." "He used the word for an animal's dig," ""burrow" maybe." "Let my buck do his job, Will." "God damn it, Henry." "Hey, don't touch my Indian." "John." "John." "John." "John." "Don't you ever touch my Indian." "I've had enough of that man screaming." "Eh, he's shit-all for information anyway." "We'll get our answers at the reservation." "This ain't the Sioux, Henry." "He just said "Burrowers."" "We need to face the enemy before us." "Do you understand?" "We're going to the reservation." "Mr. Parcher." "Oh." "What do you think, cowboy?" "I don't know." "There's another right there, maybe a third yonder." "Shitfire." "Henry Victor would rather pull toes off the Sioux than follow the trail before us." "Sorry, sir?" "I think we're about set to quit our military escort." "I ain't rode this hard since we gone to the town." "Dobie." "What do you think, cowboy?" "It's all right." "I gotta go to the Jacks." "You've been doing real good, Dobie." "You ought to sleep." "We'll be up before dawn." "We only got a few days..." "You ever heard of a tribe called the Burrowers?" "We'll stand two-hour shifts." "Yeah." "Jesus." "What?" "Don't shoot." "Don't shoot." "Don't shoot." "It's me." "It's Callaghan, Henry Victor's cook." "Shitfire, Walnut." "Are you trying to get shot?" "I can't rightly account for the others." "I didn't even know they was missing till just now." "It's nasty work in an unfriendly country." "You follow along, do as you're told, you hear?" "Well, can I ask which one of y'all is boss?" "We're partners." "Listen to Parcher." "Do what Clay says." "I'll be dogged." "The mick's been paying attention." "Welcome to the outfit, Walnut." "This don't make sense." "Don't touch anything." "Who takes men and horses and leaves the valuables to rot?" "This is something we ain't seen before." "We stay on the trail, huh?" "Which direction are we going?" "You'll go whatever direction we tell you to, I guess." "What about the wagon?" "The man said don't touch it." "Damn." "Shit." "Agh!" "Hey, what's wrong with you?" "What in the hell?" "Jesus God." "She's breathing." "She's not one of the Stewarts." "Who is she?" "That's just like a Williams woman." "She should have bled out more too." "Still moist." "Any other marks on her?" "You got eyes." "There's something scratching." "She's been drug a spell." " What else?" " What else do you want, John?" "Did the Indians rape her?" "How the hell am I supposed to know?" "There's something scratching inside her." "What are you talking about?" "I hear it too." "It's in her shoe." "Take it off." "Why would they bury her alive?" "I don't know." "It's a miracle she ain't dead." "What about the crucifix stuck on her?" "What if they buried Maryanne?" "We'll find her." "Here, it's yours." "What do I do with it?" "Hellfire, I don't know." "Find comfort in your Maker." "It's your watch." "Now once you get to Fort Lincoln, you stay with her." "We'll pick you up on our way back." "I can catch up with you guys in about a day or two." "We won't have more than a day or two before those missing are corpses or worse." "Don't ride it now unless you want to break old Spear's leg." " I know it, sir." " You'll be fine." "I wouldn't trust any other man in the outfit to do the job." "Enough." "Let's go." " I don't like this quiet." " Hold your peace." "Yonder." "He looks Sioux." "Shit, they got us flanked." "Come on." "God damn it, that was a greeting." "Whoa." " We got trouble?" " I expect." "I'm shot." "Jesus Christ Almighty, Walnut's horse kicked you." "And you deserve worse." "If you so much as touch that gun without my say-so," "I will holster it in your ass." " You understand?" " Oh, yeah." "Let's keep at it." "Well, don't think of it as being forward or nothing." "Well, that's civilized." "Well, good night." "Jesus." "You're still awake." "You're trying to" "I'm so sorry, I" "What did they do to you?" "You think that Sioux back there was Burrower tribe?" "There's more flavors of Sioux than I can count." "How come we never heard of them before?" "I can't say." "I expect they'll introduce themselves shortly." "The mick ain't made us the most popular white men in Dakota." "You know, I have a notion to let him go when we get home." "Amen to that." "I'll stay out till we find the Stewarts." "They might not be so far off." "If that Indian you shot at wanted to talk, he wanted to trade." "The only thing he'd have that we might want-- white people." "They don't trade in whites." "And if this is revenge rather than rescue" "We got no reason to think she's dead." "We can still find her." "He's right." "We don't quit." "We don't sleep." "We don't" "Jesus, Clay." "Come on." " My leg." " Stop pulling." "Get over here." "Don't waste your bullets unless you're close enough to kill." "How long are we gonna lay here?" "They could be waiting in ambush." "The horse is starting to smell." "Hey, that's poison oak, ain't it?" "Looks it." "I'll tell you what-- put your gloves on and pile up as much of this stuff as you can while we wait for dawn." "They used to make us burn this shit in Georgia." "Yeah?" "I knew a man that got caught downwind of the smoke." "Venting his lungs for two days." "You boys about set?" "He drowned in his own blood." "All set." "All right, get to burning." "Let's go." "It just don't seem right." "It gets us back on the trail." "I thought you ain't had any religion." "So we know where he's buried." "Leave it off." "If them Indians know a white man's buried here, they're liable to dig him up and tear out his eyes, make him blind in the spirit world." "This mean we're heading back?" "No." "Shitfire." "John Clay'd piss on us from heaven if we turned back now." "How do you think he does that-- sleeps on his horse?" "I wish I knew so I could do it." "Haven't closed my eyes since yesterday morning." "I wish I had my hat." "Hard to fathom" "John Clay being dead." "I've known that man since we were little boys." "You ever get anyone back-- women from the Indians?" "Not personally." "Not alive." "I" "I met a woman who-- who come back once, but she weren't never the same." "But she lived." "I'll take the first watch." "No, you sleep." "I'll" "I'll keep a lookout." "Callaghan." "Parcher." "Coffey, I can't find Parcher." "Why's the fire so high?" "I woke up in the heat of it." "He was already gone." "Something's up." "He's using us." "Indians see the fire, attack us" "Parcher sees the Indians." "Son of a bitch." "This fire will die down." "Do you hear that?" "It's almost like" "My neck." "Do we have any bandages?" "It ain't bleeding." "I can't even feel it." "Jesus." "Now I can't feel my hand." "What did that Indian do to me?" "Those weren't Indians." "Here, clean it out." "What right did you have to stake us out there like bait?" "It ain't about rights." "And I'm the one who's goddamn cut." "I can't feel my face." "They're all around us." "I think they're waiting for us to go back to sleep." "Fat goddamn chance today." "Coffey, would you hand that cross over?" "If I don't make it back, you give that to Miss Gertrude Spacks for me." "Or you give it to Dobie and tell him it's for his mother." "I'll do it if it comes to that." "I appreciate it." "We've got a fire." "Careful, we don't know if these are friendlies." "Yeah, well, as long as they're human." "What did she say?" "Told us to set a spell." "Her name is Faith." "She's talking about the Burrowers." "Said they killed her family." " As her what a Burrower is." " And where do we find 'em?" "They-- they use some kind of poison and bury their victims alive." "They eat soft parts." "Soft parts?" "What's that mean?" "I like my soft parts." "Shit." "Ute Indians know how to kill them." "Does she know how to stop the poison?" " Ute might know." " What about the Stewarts?" "What about them?" "We can't stop searching so you can find your cure." "We find the Utes:" "they lead us to the Burrower tribe:" "we kill the Burrowers:" "you get your girl:" "you build a cabin on the prairie and you play American." "Faith coming with us?" "That, or I'm killing her." "Coffey, see that bruise on Parcher's neck?" "His face and hands too." "The man's falling apart." "I'm starting to think" "I mightn't be so eager to risk my hide for that crazy shitbird's Indian cure." "I'm risking nothing for him." "You still think you're gonna find your girl, huh," "Maryanne Stewart?" "What if she looks like him?" "I may need the Indian cure just as bad." "Hey... what's the ruckus back here?" "Just talking." "I thought I might have heard my name." "Don't tell me you boys are tired already." "This is Ute territory." "What did she say?" "Not a thing." "Let's go." "We're here." "What?" "There's no here here." "We're dead center goddamn nowhere." "Utes will come." "We just gotta wait." "Get me off this horse." "My ass feels like soggy bread." "Come on." "Come on down." "Christ, come on." "Are your eyes open, bud?" "You hear me calling?" "Oy!" "I'm awake." "Good." "You stay that way." "You think that boy and his squaw are gonna try and leave us?" "Did you hear what I was saying?" "I" " I'd sure hate to have to shoot somebody who was trying to abandon me out here." "What?" "What?" "Take that one out!" " Did you see those things?" " You shot my goddamn leg!" "I saved your ungrateful ass from that" "Parcher, you stupid--!" "Jesus God in Heaven, that was no Indian." "Put wood on the fire, she says." " What's she saying?" " Nonsense." "The squaw is hysterical." " Use your hands." "Sign." " Oh, great Christ." " She wants us to go." " No, we're staying right here." "Don't listen to that red-skinned bitch." "She knows more than you do." "Can you ride?" "Yeah yeah, if I can get up on my horse." "We're staying right goddamn here." "Come on" "Coffey..." "Don't" "God damn you to hell, Coffey." "God damn you." "You boys better hope to God I die." "Coffey, we gotta do something about my leg." "Here here here." "Come on, come on." "Agh!" " No English." " Shoot 'em." "I'm empty." "Drop me and get your rifle." "Praise God." "He sent us some Utes." "Yeah, um..." "Je parle Français, kind of." "...Burrowers." "Drop me and get your rifle." "He says he can fix you." "Something about little fish." "He keeps talking about little fish." "Oh, Jesus Christ Almighty, he's-- he's talking about bait." "No." "No." "No." "Jesus Christ Almighty, he's talking about bait." " Drop me!" " Oh, God." "Oh, God." "Shoot him!" "Pick up your goddamn rifle and shoot this son of a bitch!" "Don't let them take me!" "You're killing me, you son of a bitch!" "Are they gone?" "I don't know." "You ain't thinking of going after them, are you?" "The Ute?" "Oh, God." "Coffey?" "She's dead." "Let's go home." "I gotta go after Parcher." "The hell you do." "The man was dead before them Indians ever got here." "It's not for him." "We don't know how to stop the Burrowers' poison." "We don't know how to kill them." "I want to go home." "They took Maryanne from home." "Home isn't safe." "Silence." "Oh, man." "Jesus." "Coffey." "Thank God." "What?" "They made me-- made me drink." " Drink?" " Yeah." "What do you mean, drink?" "You poisoned the little fish... to poison them." "It didn't work." "It was the sunlight." "It burned them alive." "The Utes poisoned them." "They put something in Parcher that would make them sleep." "If that Indian dies we won't find the poison." "Shit." "Nothing's easy." "I can make it to Fort Bismarck and back with a doctor in two days." "You think that Indian can live that long?" "I don't know." "Can you?" "Get to it." "Come on." "Get up, you lazy bastard." "Come on." "Hey." "Parcher's Irish." "I'll be damned." "Parcher's Irish." "My God, man, they told me you were here." "I'm glad you made it, son." "I'm afraid you're too late for Will Parcher, though." "I know." "Yeah." "What the hell did them Indians do?" "We buried him proper, though." "The man was wiser than I gave him credit." "It took us four days and no small pain to get them Sioux to tell us what Parcher guessed right off." "Yeah, well, we got scouts routing out the Ute in the north as we speak-- regular Indians." "They can whoop to beat the band, but can't fight worth shit." "Where's Callaghan?" "Who?" "He was your cook." "He was part of this" "Oh, Walnut, Walnut." "God rest him." "Walnut-- he-- he would have owed me his life, had he survived." "What?" "We had to amputate his leg and he up and died on us." "The man was hysterical, delirious before he passed." "Yeah." "Of course we never did find them Stewarts." "Yeah, well," "I doubt we ever will." "They was probably dead before we even started." "Yeah." "Well, I guess all we can do is make sure them Indians never do something like this again." "~ Hush-a-bye, don't you cry ~" "~ Go to sleep, you little baby ~" "~ When you awake we will have cake ~" "~ And all the pretty little horses ~" "~ Dun and bay, sorrel and gray ~" "~ A pall with six white horses ~" "~ Dun and bay, sorrel and gray ~" "~ And all the pretty horses ~" "~ Way down yonder, down in the meadow ~" "~ There's a poor little lamb ~" "~ The bees and flies and plucking out its eyes ~" "~ Poor little lamb crying for its mother ~" "~ Crying for its mother ~" "~ Mama gone and Daddy gone ~" "~ Oh, you miss our little baby ~" "~ So when you wake we will have cake ~" "~ And all the pretty little horses ~" "~ Dun and bay, sorrel and gray ~" "~ A pall with six white horses ~" "~ Dun and bay, sorrel and gray ~" "~ And all ~" "~ Those pretty little horses. ~"