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"What do you mean?" The Captain glanced at him again with a frown.
"I mean, I got to make a travois to pull Lee with," Chase explained. "And then we gotta haul ourselves out of here before the Indians come back."
"Pull him, we can't pull him, we'll do good to get ourselves back to civilization." The Captain huffed.
"I will pull him. I will not leave him here to die," Chase announced and began gathering wood and stripping pieces of his own clothes to tie it.
"You ignorant fool, you can't possibly save him. We can send someone out after him."
"I will save him, Captain," Chase replied and continued his search for what he needed. "So rest. Captain, we start out of here at dark."
"On foot?" the Captain sounded almost strangled.
"Don't see any available horses, Captain. Yes, on foot." Chase ignored the way the Captain was following him about and sent him an unfriendly smirk.
"We can't make it to the fort." The Captain complained, "Not on foot."
Chase stared, "The army does foot marchin' don't they? Well, that's what this is. A long foot march. But we ain't goin' to the fort. We're going to the station," Chase said.
"What for?"
"Captain," Chase stopped his working and looked at the man, noting his finely cut blonde hair, and his well trimmed mustache. "That's where Hawks is."
"How do you know?"
"I know…" Chase would never tell the Captain he had a dream with Katherine near the station. He could not dare tell him he had made passionate love to the woman. But that is how he knew and he could only point them into that direction. All the facts sounded pretty weak when he thought of it.
"You realize you are going to hang, if we manage to get back to the fort in one piece," the Captain insisted
"Don't keep reminding me Captain, I might be forced to shoot you right now. But again, that thought ought to give you supreme pleasure, Captain." Chase laughed. "It should keep you going."
"You won't be laughing when we get back," The Captain assured him.
"No," Chase looked him square in the eye. "I don't suppose I will."
Then he began to build. He had no time to trade words with a man who wouldn't listen. In a couple of hours Chase managed to piece a travois together and tied Lee to it. "I'm tying you down because I won't be able to stop very often once I'm started to check on you. But I'll stop every now and then to give you water. In order to make it, I'll have to make very few stops except when we rest. I figure two nights and we will be there."
"Thanks, Chase…but I don't think you are strong enough to do this." Lee shook his head.
"I'm strong enough. Hawks took Katherine, Lee. We've got to get to the station, before it's too late."
"What does that man want with her?" Lee asked puzzled and upset at the same time.
"I don't know, but whatever it is, it's at that station." Chase affirmed.
"What happened to the Tylers?" Lee asked glancing about. "I haven't seen any of them…"
"Hawks killed them, all but one at least. Don't know if the young one made it, or not, but it appears he got away. There's no body."
Chase glanced at Lee for a moment, strapping him down. "I didn't know those boys well. But they seemed to be pretty strong family."
"Yeah, I got that impression too. It also looks as though they aren't in on whatever it is Hawks wants," Lee said, shifting his injured arm away from the rawhide Chase had used to tie him in.
"If I'm thinking right though, the younger one will hunt Hawks down. So we might run into him along the way," Chase said as he eyed the Captain coming out of the shack. "At least I hope we will. A revenge killing can be pretty bad."
The Captain looked a little pale, but in better shape than Lee. He moved about slowly as though his head bothered him greatly, but he never complained.
"We're headed due south, so let's keep a steady pace," Chase ordered and looked at the Captain to see if he minded the orders.
