Man in the Wilderness Page #2

more than any living thing on Earth.

Captain! Captain Henry!

It's Lowrie! Fogarty!

Captain! Captain Henry!

They're back! Hey, Captain!

It's Lowrie and Fogarty.

I can't say I missed you, Fogarty.

We've been hearing Indian sounds,

but we ain't spotted any.

Smarter to run

the other way, Fogarty.

Oh, all right. Let's hear it.

Well?

It was close, Captain.

Those Indians

was breathing down our necks.

It's the God's truth, Captain.

Got out of it? What happened?

- We left him.

- Left him?

- What do you mean, you left him?

- We couldn't help it, Captain.

One shot and them Indians

would have been all over us.

He just laid there.

Well, you'd have done the same thing!

I mean,

what's the sense getting your hide peeled,

to save a dying man?

Ought we to go back, Captain?

- I'm willing.

- Too late for that.

He's dead now.

I don't think he's dying, sir.

He was trying to talk.

I decide whether we stay or not.

And I say we go on.

Gentlemen, you'll learn

that man is expendable.

We're exploring new frontiers,

must always push on,

give our lives, if need be.

This is more than a trapping mission.

We're here to explore the New America!

Dig into its pagan regions!

And we can't afford to fail.

Man must be prepared to sacrifice.

A father should give his son's life gladly.

Zach was like a son to me.

I know he'd be proud of my decision.

Our father, who art in heaven,

we commend to thee

the soul of this thy son.

Where that he may live with thee

in heavenly peace.

Forever and ever,

world without end. Amen.

I should've been there.

I should've been there.

Better wind them a minute, Captain.

Keep them coming!

Captain! Rickarees!

Rickarees!

Battle stations. Load and prime.

Fire!

Benoit!

Benoit! Fire!

At what?

I said, fire!

First time I fire at nothing.

Move off. We're changing course.

Heading north.

Right, sir.

Mount up!

What the hell was he shooting at?

Same thing he's looking at. Bass.

Come on.

There's nothing worse

than eating sick mule.

I'll take a hunk of that.

I knew a trapper once who ate his squaw.

"Well, meat's meat," he said.

Ate his squaw?

All except her fingernails.

Picked his teeth with those.

Look at him up there.

I tell you, gives me the creeps,

the way he keeps staring off.

Like he was expecting Zach Bass' ghost

to come walking out of them woods.

It ain't natural, I tell you.

Ever since he changed our course...

Yeah. But he's still our captain.

Yeah.

If Zach was alive, I mean,

if he weren't dead...

Well, you don't think

he could actually find us?

Zach's dead, Fogarty.

What are you afraid of?

I'm only afraid of what I can't see,

and I can't see what he's staring at.

Kill him.

- Get up!

- Come on, move!

Come on!

Come on. Get up!

Come on. Get up!

- Get up!

- Come on, come on!

Come on!

He's your son, Zach.

I should have been here.

There was nothing you could have done.

It was God's will.

I never much agreed with God's will.

Don't you want to meet him, Zachary?

No, not now.

One day maybe.

You raise him.

Bring him up with the gentleness

that your daughter had.

Captain?

Fogarty.

It's the men, sir.

I thought maybe you'd be interested

in knowing

what some of them's been talking about.

Like what?

Well, they've been saying

maybe we ought to burn the boat,

pack the skins on the mules,

work our way back.

What do you think?

Well, sir, I don't know

what's so important about this boat.

I mean, without it,

well, we'd be clear of the snow

and onto flat lands by now.

Mr. Fogarty, that's more than just a boat.

It's what's left of my last command.

I don't intend to see it burn.

- Now or ever.

- Yes, sir.

But when we all signed on,

we figured there was a chance.

But not the way we're headed now.

I mean, what good is all them pelts

if we are dead?

Winter's on us,

Rickarees just waiting to make their move,

and him.

Captain?

Do you think he's alive?

Captain, what the hell's so special

about Zach Bass?

Why can't you let go of him?

He's about the only man

I ever truly respected

or ever feared.

Zach was a stowaway.

He'd run off from an orphanage,

swam out to my ship in Boston Harbor.

I liked his unfearing look and kept him on.

He'd become like a son to me.

Didn't see me as his father.

He learned young to live alone.

Be his own man.

All the years we was together,

never let me come close enough to ask

"What's on your mind, Zach,

what's bothering you?"

He drew a circle, like, around himself.

Nobody dared enter it.

You do think he's alive,

don't you, Captain?

Yes, Fogarty, he's alive.

I've known it all along.

You keep away, Zach Bass!

You go back to hell, where you belong.

What is it?

Out there! I got him. I got him!

Benoit! Ferris!

Is it Bass?

Well, is it Bass?

It's Lowrie, Captain!

I can't stitch this one up, Captain.

He's got a hole in his chest

as big as me fist.

Lowrie?

But it can't be!

It was Zach Bass!

I seen him.

Well, it's done.

We'll bury him.

Say some words.

Move out in the morning.

Come on, get up there!

Get up!

Come on, keep moving!

Captain!

- Captain!

- Whoa, whoa!

The river. What is left of it.

The spring thaw will fill it again,

won't it, Captain?

No.

We're too late.

Too late.

Hey. Hey, listen to this.

"If a man dies shall he live again?

"For there is hope for a tree

if it be cut down, it will sprout again

"and that its shoots will not cease

though its root grow old in the earth,

"and its stump die in the ground."

"Stump die in the ground."

Henry.

Captain.

Battle stations! Man the guns!

Prime your weapons!

Fire!

They're coming at us.

Fire.

Ferris.

I believe that's my gun.

I've got a son out there.

I'm going to find him.

I'm going home.

English - SDH

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