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"Captain, I can explain this… I know it looks bad, but you must hear me out," Katherine insisted.
"We'll all hear you out at the trial. Looks like we're gonna be busy trying to figure out how to get out of here, first."
"But you're mistaken. Those men…those soldiers, they were on the stage. They were trying to…they were trying to…."
"They would have raped her." Chase Rivers stared at the Captain, his eyes as cold as steel as they raked the man not once, not twice but three times.
"And you wouldn't?" The Captain gaze moved like a predator about to devour his prey.
"That's right, I wouldn't." Chase's frown turned to a smirk, patronizingly. "This isn't the time to go into it, Captain. And you're letting your pride dent your better thinking."
"There are two soldiers dead, and the Corporal did not stay at his station. Those are the facts." The Captain's haughty behavior digruntled the group.
"It don't matter none, who did what. We got problems of our own right now, Captain. Problems stayin' alive." Hawks looked at them all as if they were crazy. "We'll all be lucky to get out of this Hellhole. You can worry about hangin' them later. Right now, we're pinned in here and we ain't goin' nowhere."
Chase sighed heavily. He was hot, tired and in no mood to wrangle with the Captain. He looked around at Katherine, who had turned white as a sheet. "We need to see how much water we have. Check the canteens, Katherine."
***
Katherine nodded. She went about gathering everyone's canteens and came back to stand beside him. "Two and a half." The more she stayed busy, the less she worried.
"That isn't much for as many as we now have. We'll need more. Maybe I can sneak out after dark and get some at the well." Chase nodded with a dauntless air.
"You can't go out there, you'll be killed," she shrieked. Terror leapt to her breast.
"Well, we'll die in here if I don't." Chase added, "It will be fine, little one." He smiled at her now his courage feeding hers.
She found herself smiling back. It felt good to smile again.
Everyone seemed to watch them with curiosity. The Tyler boys recognized her favoring Chase Rivers and frowned, but said nothing. Hawks watched in silence. He just shook his head as though he knew something they didn't.
Tensions rode high in the small adobe shack now.
The Tyler boys slumped to the floor. Taking out their handkerchiefs they wiped their faces and checked their guns. Rufus sat up straight and watched everyone with an eagle eye. Paul was quiet, almost pensive, he seemed exhausted. Mathew watched Katherine for a long while, then closed his eyes and went to sleep for a short time.
The Captain didn't thank Katherine for her care; he merely stared at her long and hard as she moved to Chase's side. Her brother moaned and she went to check on him. He wasn't feverish now, that was good.
Lee gathered the ammunition and divided it equally among them all. The Tyler boys seemed eager to load their guns and keep watch one at a time.
"Captain…I'd like to explain…" Lee began as he handed him the bullets, then threaded his hair with his fingers and stared him down with blatant honesty.
"There is nothing to explain. You deserted. You left your post." The Captain chided him, his judgment final.
"But sir…the Indians, they were coming back to the station to burn it. They did burn it. The Sergeant died instantly, took an arrow right to the heart. This man…this breed as you call him, saved my life by taking me with him. If I'd have stayed I'd have been killed too." Lee gestured to Chase fanning the air with dead breath.
"And by living you became a deserter." The Captain smirked, his confidence edged with uncontrolled authority. He seemed unmoved by the corporal's explanation.
Lee frowned, shaking his head. "You don't get it do you? No sir, there's not an ounce of understanding in your soul, Captain. You stand there unable to forgive or forget, with your pious self-righteousness. I never deserted sir. I'm still a soldier. I'm still fighting the Comanche."
"Tell that to the judge. You'll get a fair trial." The Captain sighed and grabbed the bullets. He spoke with an unholy lack of emotion. His empty humor bit the skin like a knife.
"We should have let the Indians kill him, he has no mercy in his soul," Lee said as he went to sit beside Chase and Katherine.
"Why didn't you?" Hawks asked.
"Because despite the circumstance, he's a human being too," Chase answered him with a frown.
There was a long silence.
