Apache Page #3

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More water!

Weddle is dead. lt's Massai!

No.

Massai is back. l'm a dead man.

Don't worry, Santos. You will live

a littlle longer, as Mr Weddle lived.

You will have time to think

of your daughter, and she of you.

Not so much as a busted twig.

She knows i'll follow. She'll leave a sign.

Unless he's killed her.

Anyway, no use trackin blind.

We'll move at sunup.

Step where l step.

lf you leave one track for

the soldiers to see, you die before l die.

Not too much.

I cannot stop for a sick woman.

You go now to kill my father?

You cannot reach the water.

Without you to sell,

Santos cannot reach the aguardiente.

It is worse than death.

That's all of it.

Come. We go.

Still only one horse.

It's mighty tired.

Build a fire.

I am weak.

We have not eaten in two days.

I do not have Massai's strength.

Build a fire!

Is it in your mind to kill me now?

I did not betray you, Massai.

The day Geronimo surrendered,

you wanted to die.

I wanted to die with you.

It would have been a great honour.

You came back from far away.

Weary from a journey that

no warrior had ever made before,

but not too weary to think of your people.

And i knew there had

never been a chief like Massai.

You looked at me and i was proud.

And when the soldiers took you,

I pleaded for you.

My father wronged you.

Many men have wronged you,

but now you make yourself

worse than they are.

Now there is nothing in you but hate.

You fight only for yourself.

You kill only for yourself.

You're like a dying wolf,

biting at its own wounds.

Shoot...

if it will make you braver

and stronger to kill a woman.

She's still alive. There's her tracks.

Keep me covered.

Rode off that way.

- The horse carried double?

- Can't tell. The ground's too hard.

Can't follow "em without makin" noise.

Best to wait here.

Massai might not come back.

The brush beds in there

ain't been slept on.

He wouldn't leave without tyin' her.

Sure he can't trust her?

I'm sure.

You sound like a bridegroom talkin.

All the same, we'll have a look around.

All right, scattler out.

Get rid of them horses.

Sieber and the soldiers.

Stay.

Get the horse!

Come.

It was a very small rabbit.

I killed the rabbit. It's for me to decide

whether it was large or small.

Why do you look at me?

I could feel. lt was like

when you aimed the gun at my back.

You talk like a child.

There is no gun in my hands now.

There is a gun in Massai's mind.

Why did you warn me about the soldiers?

- Why did you warn me?!

- Massai must know.

Where are you going?

Will you be gone long?

Massai does not have to answer.

I know what is in his mind.

This time he will not come back at all.

- What are you doing?

- I am going with you.

No!

Do you want to die? You cannot

keep up with me and i will not feed you.

Go back to the reservation. Go anywhere!

i will not have you with me.

Massai.

Massai.

Why did you follow me?

I'm only a woman.

Made for bearing children,

cooking, sewing.

If i lost you, i was nothing.

- But you could have found another man.

- There is no other Massai.

You know why i had to leave you?

I could not bring myself to kill you...

and there was no place

in Massai's life for love.

Love is for men who can walk

without looking behind.

For men who can live

summer and winter in the same place.

Every white man, every lndian,

is my enemy.

I cannot kill them all,

and someday they will kill me.

Then we will live until someday.

Nalinle's.

So she up and married him

behind your back.

Too bad, Hondo.

Might at least have

invited you to the weddin.

She'll be a widow soon.

Don't bet on it. He wouldn't stay within

I'll give a cigar to anybody

who finds a track.

What is this?

It's nothing. A young girl's foolishness.

It's like the Cherokee corn.

I kept it. A littlle of it.

To me it was a part of Massai.

A young girl believes

what she wants to believe.

Maybe it's just as well.

You're very silent.

There are times when words

come hard to a woman.

Not often.

Will you still smile if l tell you

there will be another Massai?

A littlle one.

I would smile even if it were a girl.

Stay down.

Only a hunter, shooting a deer.

Pack everything you can carry.

Is it the hunter you fear?

Not this hunter, but there will be others.

We must think now of the littlle Massai.

The mountains to the west,

we could go there.

They are high, with much snow.

I know what you're thinking. You want

to send me back to the reservation.

It is the only wise thing.

You have seen them on the reservation.

Do you want your son to grow up

to be another Santos?

We will go - the mountains to the west.

Massai did well.

Now there'll be something

besides water in the stew.

One rabbit in a week.

I saw a deer, but it was

too far for the bow.

Next time i take the rifle.

- But if the shot is heard...

- It's bettler than starving.

Once you could fire a gun without fear,

because you were always on the move.

Now l keep you tied to one place.

I am only thinking of the littlle Massai.

This Massai is finished.

I can live a year, maybe two or three,

but in the end i must die.

But if you stopped fighting?

I cannot stop fighting.

I am the last real Apache left

in all the world,

except for the littlle one to be.

He must not be born here.

When i am gone, you and he

will be left alone to starve.

I know now what i must do.

When the snow melts,

I will take you back to your people.

I will never believe that.

Even when the soldiers took you,

I could still dream of a life with Massai.

A life like the Cherokees.

I will not stop now.

Dreams are for fools!

Come spring, i will gather the young men

and give my son

something to remember me for!

Hello, Santos.

I see you're still stickin'

close to Uncle Sam.

Quit worryin'. Massai ain't after you.

He's just got you staked out on

an ant hill, that's all - a dry ant hill.

Long time between drinks, huh?

You don't have to tell anybody.

His Majesty, chief of all the Apaches!

We've combed that whole country.

They're not there any more.

Well, maybe the war's over.

It's been prettly quiet around here, too.

Hasn't even begun. The reservation bucks

are already makin' a legend out of him.

They haven't made a move,

and they won't.

Well, that's only because

he hasn't called 'em out, but he will.

But if he can't be found...

Look, Sieber, headquarters

officially declared this a war.

Now they'd like to officially call it off.

Forget your pride and let 'em.

Well, it takes two to call off a war.

He's got to be in those mountains

somewhere, and now's the time.

Snow's meltin' and even Massai can't

navigate mud without leavin' tracks.

You sound prettly confident.

I've been confident, ever since

he got himself that squaw.

Shall i pack the rest now?

The ground is not yet firm enough.

We leave tomorrow or the next day.

Massai, look!

All the way from Cherokee land.

- It's a sign, Massai.

- Of what? That corn will grow?

But why did it grow here?

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