"Oh, Great Spirit whose voice I hear in the winds and whose breath I see in the morning mist." "Oh, come, spirit helper." "Come now with the rising sun." "Oh, shield of sun fulfill my vision quest." "Long have I fasted." "Long have I sent up the arrows of my prayers to you." "Send your spirit helper to reveal to me the mysteries you have hidden in every leaf and rock in every stream and living creature." "Come, spirit helper." "Oh, spirit helper, come." "I knew you would come." "You knew?" "That is why my father and mother brought me here." "So that the lord of the heavens would send you to me, Nashebo to instruct and to guide me throughout my life." "My prayers have been answered." "The Great One has sent you to be my spirit helper." "I am not a spirit, Nashebo." "I am a man." "Who am I to question the will of the Great One if he chooses to send my spirit helper in the form of a man?" "I am sorry Spirit Helper for my weakness." "For five days and nights, I have fasted without sleep praying that you would come." "You must eat." "You must drink." "I am most fortunate to have a spirit helper all can see." "They will be able to see you." "Will they not?" "All will be able to see me." "And I will be able to stand up in the councils of my people and be heard when you have taught me what it is to be a man." "And what is it to be a man?" "To be a man is to be one with the universe." "But what is the universe?" "Rather ask:" ""What is not the universe?"" "Then it is everywhere." "It is in your eye and in your heart." "As a seed of the peach contains the fragrance of the flower and the substance of the fruit." "And the bitter pit at its core?" "Even that." "This trail. lt leads to Masia?" "As you know by way of Massopock, where my father and mother Tenorio and Crucita, are awaiting us." "Naturally, you will lead the way." "You call the mountain sacred?" "As you know the Great One, wishing to visit that which he had made cut a small opening in the sky." "Through it, he pushed rocks, snow and ice." "Until the mountain grew so high that he could reach the earth." "As the stepping stone of the sun chief the mountain is sacred." "is it not?" "It could not be otherwise." "No!" "No!" "No." "Mother." "Father." "Mother!" "Father!" "Don't kill them!" "Murderer!" "Father...." "My father, come back to me." "If you cannot come back, my father then pass to the great beyond." "You are a good son." "What is a son without a father or mother?" "is not a son the love of a father and a mother and the life they gave him?" "A design of the universe he must fulfill if he is to be a man." "I can only fulfill that design with your help." "I must free my mother and avenge my father's death." "My road lies another way." "But I do not yet know how to be a man." "No longer can my father teach me so many things." "That is why you came, Spirit Helper." "Nashebo I am only a man." "If you are, as you say, also a man..." "How, then, can you not have feelings for a son with his mother lost to him as I am now." "I need your help." "My father's spirit cannot find peace in the land of the dead because his murder has not been avenged." "What is it, grasshopper?" "Master Po I have been troubled." "I have sensed that in you these past days." "While your body has been healing your spirit has sickened." "It is because I have done nothing about the murder of my parents." "And what do you propose to do?" "Find General Chung." "Kill him!" "You, a boy, not yet a man against the ruthless warlord and his soldiers?" "If I could find him alone it could be done." "And being done, what do you derive?" "Satisfaction." "is there now more or less light in this chamber?" "There is less." "is it not more important that you find yourself than a killer of men?" "Would your parents not wish you to go forward to life and light rather than backward to death and darkness?" "How do I find myself and the light?" "By taking the path that leads to the truth." "Will you help me walk the path?" "I can only point the way, grasshopper." "You must walk the path yourself." "You will come with me?" "I will come with you." "You are my spirit helper." "My name is Caine." "If that is what you wish to be called." "It will not be easy." "It may not be possible." "With you all things are possible." "And I will keep my ears sharp for your instruction." "And do everything you tell me Spirit Helper Caine." "Let us start." "It's here we'll rest the horses." "I've got plans for you too, lady." "Well, to be sure, I hadn't noticed before." "It's a mighty fine figure of a woman we have here." "I have here." "You and Saunders backtrack." "I want to be full certain it's not being followed, we are." "Followed by who?" "That third horse." "It belongs to somebody." "Maybe it's just a packhorse." "They won't be asked of taking any chances on the "maybe" of it." "I thought you said we had to rest the horses." "It is what I said, lad." "But you can take the two Indian mounts, can't you?" "Surely, there's been no one riding them." "They're still as fresh as the morning dew." "I'm not going on a wild-goose chase." "Oh, you're not, is it?" "When you're stronger and faster and bigger than me, Diego, my boy then you can give the orders." "is not that the way of it, Saunders?" "That's what we agreed." "Strongest rules." "All right, Pike." "Have it your own way." "I purely intend to." "Now get sailing along with you." "Well just the two of us, it is." "Cozy as a pair of crickets on the hearth." "That way." "You follow the trail well." "My father taught me many things." "You must teach me the rest." "There is game." "Should we stop to take food?" "That is for you to decide." "But you must tell me what to do." "Does a man ask another to show him what to do?" "The Comancheros must also take food." "We will stop for a short time." "What kind of game would you like?" "I do not want to eat game." "But the game here is good." "Birds, squirrel, rabbit." "It is a personal thing not to take life." "I too have been taught to reverence all life." "For there, as you know is nahi:" "Soul in all things." "Animals, rocks and trees." "Wind and rain." "Life that is perfect and more free from the weaknesses of man." "You have been taught well, Nashebo." "And so, because man is weak the Great One has made all these things to help him survive." "I understand your thought." "I understand yours too, Spirit Helper." "You are a spirit and do not have the needs of a mortal." "We will take other things from nature." "The yampa." "The tubers are strong and sweet." "Tastes good." "Which one you want?" "You take the flop-hat." "Now." "What I tell you?" "We better check." "Why?" "They're coyote meat." "Come on." "Let's get back to Pike." "A bit anxious, ain't you?" "I just don't want him staking a claim on that Indian woman." "Spirit Helper?" "Spirit Helper Caine?" "Spirit Helper?" "Spirit Helper, don't leave me too." "Spirit Helper?" "Spirit Helper Caine?" "Spirit Helper, are you still with me?" "I am with you." "You were communing with the Great Spirit." "That is how you healed yourself." "It was only a scab wound." "You do not need the poor medicine that I have brought." "I do not know this plant." "It is parethea." "This part of the root is for wounds such as yours." "May I add this to my medicine pouch?" "I am honored." "You see?" "Now it is you who are teaching me." "Diego!" "Hey, Pike, how are you?" "Welcome home, Pike." "Sure like the looks of them vittles you brung." "Hey, where you guys been?" "Haven't seen you in a long time." "Hey, what you got there, huh?" "Pike, how'd things go?" "How'd things go, Pike?" "I'll be telling you all about it later." "Right now it's a drink I'm needing." "And later, the soft comfort of a woman's arms after a cruel and rocky journey to perdition and back." "She's mine, Pike." "Yours, is she now?" "I'm taking her for my share of the loot." "It is grand expectations you have, Diego." "is it better than me you are, then that you be giving the orders and doing the taking?" "is it worth it, lad?" "Diego, my lad, the living truth of it is you always did your learning the hard way." "It is a fort." "Nashebo, what are you doing?" "My duty." "Avenge my father's death, so that his spirit may find peace." "Did you not tell me the Indian reveres all life?" "And you believe the Great One gave life to us all?" "Only he could." "Then what man has the right to take from another the gift given by the Great One?" "Out of the way!" "General Chung demands rice for his forces!" "What is in your thought, grasshopper?" "That is the man who killed my mother and my father." "Revenge is a double-edged sword." "It cuts both ways." "Chung's soldiers will kill you, or you'll destroy yourself by the certain suicide of your spirit." "Grasshopper, the wheel of life is turned inexorably by the infinite stars." "And so it is, the truth will not be cheated." "Consider General Chung reduced to stealing some few bags of rice." "is not the wheel crushing him?" "is not an abyss opening at his feet?" "is not his path, which he treads with his own feet leading to an eternal grave?" "If I am to be a man must I not avenge my father?" "If you are to be a man must you not act to save your mother's life?" "How can I save my mother?" "We must think of a way." "Spirit Helper, you are remembering the legend of Ship Rock?" "Tell it to me." "You wish to see if I have learned my lessons well?" "Long ago, on a towering rock called Ship were the last of our people." "Giant birds of prey built nests on the summit of Ship Rock." "Their most-liked food was the children of our people." "One day, Maniboso, the son of Sky Chief saw the plight of our people and took pity." "But there was no way to ascend to Ship Rock." "So he took the magical hide of the white buffalo and put it across his shoulders, arms outstretched from north to south." "The wind carried him high, high up, until he could reach the peak." "There he killed the birds with the knife of lightning given him by his father." "Can you not do that, Spirit Helper fly down and kill them with the knife of lightning?" "I cannot." "We do not have the magical hide of the white buffalo." "I did not think of that." "But you have shown me a way." "Wine!" "Play something lively." "It is now." "They cannot kill you." "I hope not." "But you, Spirit Helper, you are protected by the heavens." "What's the matter, lassie?" "Seen a ghost, have you?" "Come, come, lassie." "Come on, me little redskin!" "On with the dance." "Oh, Crucita, me love you dance like the prettiest princess in all of Ireland." "Wine for everybody." "There's no more wine." "There are two more bubbling casks in me tent." "Holding out on us, huh?" "Look, they say, sirs:" ""To the victor goes the spoils."" "Don't be frightened." "Nashebo sent me." "Nashebo?" "Where is my son?" "He's waiting for you to come." "What is it we have here?" "Bejabbers!" "A Chinaman!" "Come through the center of the earth, have you?" "Now, where is it you think you're going with her?" "I have come to take a mother to her son." "Well a proud sort of man." "Turn around, lad." "I'd be have to telling you to say your prayers if you wasn't a heathen." "Of course, the only thing you're getting here, bucko is a terrible, tearing bullet in the head." "Hey, who's this, Pike?" "Keep walking." "I said, keep on walking." "Aye, lad." "Good." "Good." "Give it up, Chinaman." "Strip him and stake him out." "It's the slow, slow death rising in his gorge I want him to be tasting." "To the victor go the spoils." "Nashebo!" "Mother!" "Hold it!" "You know him, do you, lass?" "Aye." "Looks like we found another heathen." "Aye." "There I was thinking you told me you got them back there on the trail." "What do you want me to do with him?" "Same as the Chinaman." "They come in together." "Let them go out together." "Spirit Helper, my father's spirit is still restless." "My mother is their captive." "I have failed." "Why did you not help me?" "Nashebo." "You ask I help you be a man." "You have not failed in that." "I too am only a man." "Spirit Helper Caine how is it, in man's form as you are that you do not feel the terrible teeth of the cold?" "is the spirit of a man sustained by food or warmed by outer garments?" "You have other spirits within you." "What do you mean?" "The marks on your arms." "The spirit of the snake for the power of lightning and the spirit of the mountain lion for the power of strength." "It is a dragon and a tiger." "Even more powerful medicine." "Nashebo." "They are only symbols." "Your final test, the urn of the two symbols:" "The dragon and the tiger." "When you can walk in this corridor, the inner path to the outer world and can push the urn aside with your forearms you will bear its markings with you for the rest of your life." "Hundreds of pounds of burning coal and iron." "How can I, master having only the strength of a man and the weaknesses?" "It is because you are a man that you can do this, grasshopper." "I do not understand." "As the softest clay, in time, becomes the hardest brick a fragile leaf, a diamond as a stream of fiery ore freezes into unbending iron so too may a man ascend to himself." "How?" "By slowly forging the chi within yourself the bond between the finite and infinite the inner essence of your spirit, and the limitless power of the universe." "How can I do this?" "You will have found your strength and the source of your survival." "You will be free." "Well, how is it with them two?" "I can't figure it." "Colder than the North Pole last night." "That Chinaman looks like he slept under six blankets." "Chinaman." "What kind of a man is it, you are?" "Like any other." "A man." "Like no man I ever knew." "Spirit Helper Caine is not like any of us." "Can you not see the marks on his arms?" "l didn't see them before." "You did not look." "Well, what do them brands mean?" "is it somebody's slave, you are?" "They are marks of his strength." "He is much stronger than you." "ls he, now?" "Maybe he is, Mr. Pike." "He sure laid you out yesterday." "It was lucky, he was." "Lucky." "Then prove you are stronger than he." "Or are you only able to kill those who are bound and helpless?" "Well, if it's the proving you want you'll have it." "Untie that thing." "Hurry up, lads." "Proving time, it is." "You'd better take that knife, Chinaman." "A fight to the death, it is." "Well, I guess he did prove who was stronger, all right." "That makes you the new head man, flop-hat." "You got any orders?" "I will take your machete, now." "Wanna finish him off?" "Free her." "You heard the man." "Thank you, Spirit Helper." "Master, I am troubled." "Why?" "My parents are long dead." "General Chung is tumbled from his arrogance and power." "Yet, within me anger boils, as water in a heated pot." "Observe the day lily." "Each morning, with the warmth of the sun it opens in lovely blossom." "Each night, it closes." "I do not understand." "What has a flower to do with my anger?" "Once, your anger warmed you and, like the flower, you opened to it." "That is long past." "It is night." "Am I, then, to do nothing?" "Feel nothing?" "Be still?" "Still water is like glass." "It is a perfect level." "A carpenter could use it." "The heart of a wise man is tranquil and still." "Thus, it is the mirror of heaven and earth the glass of everything." "Be like still water." "You look into it and see yourself." "Give them all their possessions." "Give them everything?" "You heard the new leader." "Leader?" "That's right." "You just got yourself elected." "I cannot lead you." "Well, you've seen this place." "If you don't lead, you don't leave." "I can lead no one." "I think you made your point, Mr. Flop-hat." "Here's my share." "What are you gonna do with him, just let him go?" "Yes." "No!" "l will avenge my father!" "Nashebo!" "Do you not wish to be a man?" "Nashebo!" "is it not better to embrace the living than to avenge the dead?" "Nashebo." "Saunders, I want them killed." "I want them killed!" "Which of you will kill me?" "I think you've already answered that one for us." "Besides, I kind of like it the way things are." "I'm still the leader here!" "Are you, now?" "Here we must part." "You must go to the south, and I, there, to the west." "Will you not come with us?" "We are alone, and you are alone." "You have your own people." "Spirit Helper, do not leave." "I need you to teach me how to be a man." "Nashebo, you are a man." "Goodbye my friend." "He was my true and only spirit helper."