Only the Valiant Page #6

He's the only man

can keep this outfit going.

Where are you, Onstot?

This is Murdock.

Five years I've been in the Army,

and I get captured

on account of a dirty Reb.

Captain.

What is it?

There's Murdock coming back.

Wait a minute, Captain.

That's Murdock.

No trooper ever carried

a carbine that way.

There'll be coming now.

Fire at will.

Hold your fire!

Let them carry back their wounded.

Winters, do you know

the trail to Arahawa Rim?

I do.

Yeah.

Yes, I know it. Why?

Well, as near as I can figure it,

the relief column ought to be

at the Rim sometime tomorrow.

I want you to ride out there

and tell Captain Conrahan

to get here as fast as he can.

Do you really mean that?

I just said it, didn't I?

You might be dead when I get back.

I'll take my chances on that.

How do you know I'd ride to Conrahan?

How do you know

I wouldn't ride for the fort?

It would solve all my troubles, you know.

Yeah, I know.

And I also know that

whatever your faults are,

you're still an Army man.

You can take my horse if you want to.

No, thanks.

I got a good one.

Good luck, Dick.

Good luck to you, Jerry.

How big a column does Conrahan got?

400 men.

Nice round number.

Cease firing!

All ready, Captain.

Kebussyan, open the gate.

You all right, Saxton?

Yes, sir. Fine, sir.

I'd like to try to get through, sir.

Arab, what do you think about

when you're thirsty?

Water.

Water.

Sometimes melons.

You're a great help, a great help.

Gilchrist!

Yes, sir?

Sometimes blood.

You got a cigar, Corporal?

Sir?

I said, have you got a cigar?

Yes, sir, in my saddlebag.

Go get it.

And take the pennant

off the guide-on and put this on it.

Well, sir...

you're going to surrender?

No, Corporal.

We're going to have

a little talk with Tucsos.

But what's the cigar got to do with it?

You just go and get it,

and you'll find out.

And take that pistol off your belt.

Yes, sir.

A charge of dynamite is under the rocks.

All you have to do is light

the fuse with your cigar

when I give the signal.

Yes, sir.

If you have any trouble,

call my name out once,

then get back to the fort immediately.

Yes, sir.

Time short, hard one.

Why you come out under pale flag?

I came to offer you

a chance to surrender.

You have strange courage, dog soldier.

Do you command mighty party

that you can speak such words?

Or is it because you think

no army but your army,

no warriors but yours?

By waiting half day,

I capture your men

with bag of water.

Your warriors have

great thirst, hard one.

My terms are simple.

Your men will lay down their arms

and come through the pass on foot.

Scout I send back to you,

he able to speak before he die?

He spoke.

Still, you make terms to Tucsos?

You heard.

Help you have sent for will do no good.

1 and 30 men.

Our chieftains have promised 400 men.

It is not their way

to promise much and send little.

I know what I say is true.

You're a liar.

There is no more to hear.

Wait.

I do not speak foolishly or surrender.

I have brought with me strong medicine,

medicine that will make

these mountains tremble

and leap from the earth.

I can destroy this pass

and all of your warriors with it.

Watch. You will see.

All right, Corporal!

Captain Lance!

Very well, Corporal,

go back to the fort.

This medicine is controlled from the fort.

Soon you will see.

You lie, hard one.

Your medicine fail.

You who know all things know nothing.

Tucsos is growing old and foolish.

No more time for talk, dog soldier.

Return to fort, soldier.

With no water,

you will soon be as dust

under hooves of our horses.

- What happened?

- I don't know, Captain.

The fuse was gone

and that little cap thing, too.

Somebody tampered with it.

That's what I'd say.

Looks like the fuse was gone

out of that demonstration charge.

That's funny.

I could have sworn I put it in.

Makes me wonder about

the charge up in the pass.

Maybe the fuse is gone

out of that one, too.

Well, Captain, why don't you

take a run up there and see?

Why did you do it, Rutledge?

We're all of us caught up here together.

Where did you expect to go?

With you, Captain.

And just remember this.

I'm not committing suicide.

I'm killing you.

No, Rutledge, you are committing suicide,

because I'm going back up in that pass

with a new fuse the first chance I get

and blow it sky-high.

And whatever you think,

I didn't bring this patrol up here

to get every man killed.

I'm going to get out

every one alive that I can...

and especially you, Rutledge.

I'm going to get you back to Winston

and have you court-martialed.

I'm going to have you hung

with the strongest length of rope

in the whole New Mexico Territory.

Allah!

Leave it alone.

Leave it alone.

I'll need some bandages

from my quarters.

Yes, sir.

This what you wanted, Captain?

It was in Rutledge's pocket.

Yes, exactly what I wanted.

If I can reset these fuses,

this mission may still be a success.

Judging from the ruckus

I hear out there,

our red brothers are

too busy at the moment

to pay much attention to us.

I'll need somebody to cover me.

I'll go, Captain.

I am ready, effendi.

No, you can't go

with that shoulder, Kebussyan.

I will not let anyone else go.

All right. Come on.

Before they kill me, I'd like to get

my hands loose for just five minutes.

Yeah, it looks like you're gonna

get your wish, Reb.

You always had me tired

with your dirty Yankee stripes!

Why you fight so soon before you die?

Because he's a no good

son of a Yankee mule.

Your hate is strong, dog soldier.

Yeah? Turn me loose

and I'll show you

how a dirty Yankee soldier oughta die.

I've waited a long time for this, Sergeant.

Just don't run away, Rebel.

Kebussyan!

Hurry! Hurry, effendi!

Go. Go, effendi.

Saxton, anything moving?

No, nothing.

Everything's quiet, Captain.

Well, Corporal, looks like

they cut us down a bit.

Yeah, I kind of figured they would.

Next time they come, they're gonna

cut down the rest of us.

Looks that way, don't it?

You tried to shoot me, didn't you?

Sir?

Aimed your carbine

at me the other night.

Well, I...

I guess I got nothing to lose now

if I admit that that idea might have

flitted through my head a little.

Why didn't you do it?

I can't rightly answer that, Captain.

Unless...

Unless maybe I got the sudden notion

that it might kind of spoil things for you,

not going down in the line of duty,

which you're so fond of, so to speak.

No.

You're a soldier, Gilchrist.

A professional one.

You may be creation's

worst mule son of a soldier,

but that's what you are.

That's why you couldn't do it.

I knew that.

That's why I didn't have you shot

five minutes after I saw you point

the muzzle of that thing at me.

You could've had me shot

for what I did to them canteens.

Well...

In both cases,

I didn't have enough men

for a firing squad anyway.

I knew that, Captain.

Meanwhile, I wonder if you'd

do something for me.

Anything you say, sir.

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