The smile returned to her face and she said, “John Hawk, I don’t reckon you’ll ever land in one spot and stay there, will you?”

“I don’t know,” he answered honestly. “It doesn’t look like it, does it?” He would like to have told her that he was quitting the army and settling down, but he didn’t know what he could do to support a family.

“No, I guess not,” she answered his question. “Well,” she sighed, “I’d best see if Martha has your breakfast ready.” With that she turned and went to the kitchen.

Martha read her face when she took Hawk’s plate from her. “You don’t look too happy to see him,” she couldn’t help commenting.

“He’s not ever gonna settle down in one spot,” Sophie said. “No use wasting time thinking he will.”

“A man like that might be a lot better than one that’s hanging around under your feet all day. If you’re giving up on him,” Martha joked, “can I have him?”

Sophie shook her head. “Not quite yet.”

* * *

After a quiet breakfast, Hawk reported to Porter Willis at the sheriff’s office and told him the whole story about the happenings of the prior night. After that, he went to the undertaker and paid him to pick up the three bodies behind the Capital City Saloon. It was well after noon when he bought the supplies he needed and settled up with Grover Bramble at the stable. But he started back up the Mullan Road to Fort Benton, anyway, anxious to make this final journey to finish this quest. A journey of over one hundred miles, he planned to make it in two and a half days, barring any trouble along the way. There was none, and he made his camp on the Missouri River just twenty miles short of Fort Benton at the end of the second day of travel. He rode into the town of Fort Benton shortly before noon and went directly to the First Baptist Church. At first, he started to pull up in front of the church, but upon noticing a small collection of army tents behind the church, he rode around behind it. As he had thought, it was a temporary camp of the survivors. One of the men recognized him and ran to fetch Donald Lewis.

“John Hawk, right?” Lewis asked as he walked to meet him. “I didn’t expect to see you again. Lieutenant Sessions told us the Fort Ellis patrol had returned to base without finding the outlaws. What brings you up this way again?”

“I just wanted to drop off a little something you and your folks lost,” Hawk replied. He went to his packhorse and untied the extra saddlebags and the canvas bag. “I know this ain’t all of what you lost, but I think it’s most of it.”