He took two full days to ride to Fort Ellis, pushing Rascal a little because he wanted to make it to Bozeman, about three miles west of the fort. He had been living on bacon and jerky, and he hoped to get there in time to catch supper at Sadie’s. When he rode up to the front of the little dining room, the CLOSED sign was not hung out as yet, so he tied Rascal at the rail and hurried inside. “Well, you just did make it in time,” Sadie declared. “I reckon you want coffee.” He said that he did, and she went to fetch him a cup. When she came back with it, she asked, “Where in the world have you been? You ain’t been in here in I don’t know when.”

“Oh, I don’t know, round and about, I reckon—been outta town most of the time, ridin’ patrol.” He was talking to Sadie, but he was looking at a couple sitting at a table in the back corner of the dining room. “I had to get back here to get a decent meal. Whatcha pushin’ tonight?” While she told him what his choices were, he still concentrated on the back of the man seated at the table with a young lady. He was a soldier, and Hawk was almost sure who he was. “I’ll take the stew,” he told Sadie. Then certain that he recognized the back of the soldier, he raised his voice and declared, “But I don’t know if I wanna eat in here with any army riffraff.”

Hearing the comment, Lieutenant Mathew Conner turned to see who the troublemaker was. “Hawk!” Conner exclaimed. “Where have you been?”

“That’s what Sadie just asked me,” Hawk replied. “Ain’t nobody lookin’ for me, is there?”

Conner turned his chair halfway around to better see him. “Harvey Meade’s patrol came back early yesterday, and you weren’t with ’em. I asked him why you didn’t come back with the patrol, and he just said it wasn’t your choice.”

“That’s what he said, huh?” Hawk responded. “He came back mighty early, gave up on findin’ that party of Indians, I suppose.”

“Come back here and join us,” Conner said. “Meet my lovely dining companion. This is Miss Dora Carpenter. Dora, this half-wild-looking man is John Hawk.”

“Pleased to meet you, Miss Carpenter,” Hawk said. “I’ll just sit down over here at this table. I don’t wanna disturb your supper.” She smiled sweetly at him as he pulled a chair back and sat down at a table across from theirs.

“Come out with it,” Conner demanded. “You and Harvey got into it again, right? So, you left the patrol, but you didn’t come back to the fort.”