Rocky Mountain Page #4

- Don't worry, scissorbill.

Like I said,

I get something out of this too.

I'll be back.

It will be a sorry day when me

and that feller's in the same army.

That's what we came here for, Pap.

Well, you'll sure never get me

to salute him.

Salute? You?

Who did you ever salute?

Jeb Stuart, once.

He must be quite an officer.

Sure, we can get us

through them mountains.

We can get us through any mountains.

The only hard part's

to come out someplace.

There's 50,000 square miles

of nothing but mountain range out there.

The only chance in the world of ever seeing

Cole Smith again is to wait for him here.

What happens when more blue-bellies come

looking for the ones we got?

If we can hold on here

till Cole Smith gets back...

...we'll get our job done.

If we can't, we're through.

It's as simple as that.

Where you going, Jimmy?

Thought the lady might like

her supper now.

Heh. What do you know about girls?

Nothing.

Excepting they must get hungry too.

Any more questions?

- Captain, can I see you for a minute?

- Sure.

I've been talking

to these Shoshone scouts.

- You speak their language?

- Some.

I had a Shoshone squaw one time

for a while.

- How was she?

- She didn't say.

But the thing is,

these ain't just common, ordinary Indians.

That old one's named Man Dog.

He just happens to be the biggest chief

of the Shoshones, west of the Escalante.

What's a chief doing

working for the Yanks?

Spying on them, probably.

Them other two is his sons.

I got an idea they figure on pulling out.

If they did,

they'd turn you in for a bale of blankets.

Well, why are you telling me this?

Well, like I told you...

...I ain't got no stake in this war

one way or the other.

Whatever happens to you fellows up here

is liable to happen to me too.

I only got one suggestion.

If you have to kill one of them,

kill them all.

Or we ain't gonna get much further.

No, sir. Not without open dispute.

Thanks.

It surely makes me feel bad, ma'am...

...to bring you just sowbelly

and black-eyed peas.

- Lf only we just had some greens.

- It doesn't make any difference.

This here's the second time I got humiliated

by sowbelly and black-eyed peas.

Just ain't lucky for me I guess.

- When was the other time?

- Well, it was when I...

- Oh, you wouldn't believe me.

- Yes, I will.

Well, it was the time

I put my dinner on a skillet lid...

...and taken it to General Lee

with my own hands.

- Where was this?

- Just before the battle of Gettysburg.

This bunch of officers

comes along and stops...

...and looks out across the valley.

And as the horses parted...

...there was General Robert E. Lee,

setting his gray horse, name of Traveller.

I don't remember how come

that skillet lid in my hand...

...but there was me at Lee's stirrup,

offering it up.

I says, "You gotta keep

your strength up, sir," I says.

Heh. Me saying that to General Lee.

And he taken that skillet lid

and he sat there looking at it.

Like he didn't know what it was.

I says,

"I'm surely sorry we ain't got no greens. "

And Lee, he looked me square in the eye

and he says:

"It's elegant," he says.

Then he looks out across the valley again.

He looked so tired and so sad.

His hair was just as white

as cotton busting out of the boll.

I begun to bawl.

Then he moves on,

old Traveller walking slow.

And Lee looking out across the valley,

carrying a skillet lid in his hand.

And I'd never seen him again.

Nor the skillet lid.

There's just one thing

that keeps coming back to me...

...and it frets me often.

You know, I never give him no knife

to eat them black-eyed peas.

Well, anyway,

I hope you like your dinner, ma'am.

Come on, Spot.

He likes you.

He don't generally take with Yankees.

- Jimmy taking care of you all right?

- He certainly is.

He's a nice boy.

- How old is he?

- You mean in years?

Oh, all of 16.

He's a veteran.

Joined up when he was 14.

He makes me feel very young,

and very old at the same time.

He just makes me feel old.

They grow up fast in a war.

Overnight, the kids are young men.

- And the young men?

- Heh. You got a point there.

Captain Barstow, what are you going to do

about Lieutenant Rickey?

That depends on a lot of things,

including him.

I'm afraid I don't understand

the fine points of war.

One minute you're ready

to shoot him down in cold blood.

The next minute you're willing

to take his word for something.

As if you were all back in your own homes

playing some pleasant game.

- It doesn't make much sense, does it?

- It doesn't make any sense.

I guess it's all we have to hang on to.

A few little customs from the past.

Just to remind us there was a past.

Well, I hope you enjoy your dinner,

ma'am.

How are the blue-bellies?

Asleep.

- Any trouble?

- Dead to the world.

Then for dinner, first I have

two dozen oysters fresh from the shell.

- As big as my hand.

- Oysters.

You mean you'd put one of them

slimy things right in your mouth?

Oyster is a beautiful thing.

All that cool salt water

washes over him all his life.

And the sunlight, it comes down to him

all green and blue.

Not white, hot and dusty like it is here.

And all around him it is coral,

and sea flowers.

And different colored fish.

Such beautifulness

goes into making an oyster.

So you'd go right to work...

...and put one of the slimy things

right in your mouth, huh?

I think nobody has been

so far from home as me.

Stay where you are, blue-bellies.

The Indians are gone.

They went over the rim.

Jonas, Plank, after them.

There's one.

One down here.

That new 45-70

sure put a hole in the man.

How did they come to break?

- Well, I...

The moon went under a minute.

I should have built a fire

but I thought they was all asleep.

Then I heard a noise and they was gone.

I only had a chance for one good shot.

I got one below, Plank just yelled up.

- That makes two.

- What about the other, any sign of him?

They took after him, but it's pretty dark.

If he ain't dead by this time,

they ain't never gonna get him.

- I'm awfully sorry, captain.

- You couldn't help it, Jim.

Plank.

Yes, sir.

Tell Lieutenant Rickey I'd like to see him.

- Which was the first smoke?

- Over there.

Well, at least we know

where Man Dog is now.

If I know these Indians, and I ought to...

...we're gonna see a lot of them

before too long, captain.

That old devil

must have traveled 10 miles.

More like 15.

You wanted to see me?

Yes. There's something I think

you have the right to know.

- Yeah?

- Those Indian scouts of yours...

...turned out to be

just a little bit more than that.

The old one's called Man Dog,

a very powerful Shoshone chief.

- The two we shot were his sons.

- Look, there's more smoke over there.

This ain't gonna be no picayune affair.

Looks like he's rounded up

the whole tribe.

- And what are you gonna do about it?

- Nothing.

You're not gonna hold a woman here,

in an Indian attack?

- Miss Carter's safety is my responsibility.

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