“Well, we had a little disagreement,” Hawk admitted. “Didn’t seem like that much to me, but Meade fired me, so I reckon it was more important to him.”

Conner shook his head as if exasperated. “Kicked you off the patrol, huh?”

“Kicked me out of the scoutin’ service,” Hawk said. “The army would no longer require my services, is what he said.”

“Why, that pompous ass,” Conner blurted, then quickly apologized to Dora for his outburst. “He can’t do that. I’ll talk to Brisbin. I need you on my patrols.” He glanced at Dora and explained. “Hawk’s the best scout on the post.”

Hawk glanced at her and said, “There’s some that disagree.” Back to Conner then, he said, “He wasn’t without a scout when I left. Ben Mullins was with us. He’s a good man. We were trackin’ a little group of old Walkin’ Owl’s village. They stole one cow and ate it. Meade insisted that they were drivin’ a small herd. If that had been the case, all but one of ’em woulda had wings on their feet, either that, or the Indians were flyin’ ’em like kites.”

This whole fiasco with Meade was upsetting to Mathew Conner. Hawk was a friend of his, in addition to being his most trusted scout. “What are you going to do now?” he asked. “You going to talk to Major Brisbin?”

“Don’t know if there’s any sense in that. Meade is the commander of all the scouts on the post. And if the major told him who he can fire and who he can’t, then he’s countermanding Meade’s authority. Don’t get yourself all worked up about it, I’ve got a lot of work I need to do on my cabin up on the Boulder—been puttin’ it off for months. Winter’s gonna be comin’ in before you know it, and I need to have my place ready. I need to do a lot of huntin’, too, lay in a supply of meat.”

“I’m gonna go talk to Brisbin,” Conner insisted. “He needs to do something about Harvey Meade.”

“Don’t get involved in this,” Hawk said. He looked again at the young lady. “I apologize, ma’am. You most likely know that the lieutenant here can get pretty excited about a lot of things. I just hope I haven’t spoiled your supper.” He got up just as Sadie was bringing his supper out of the kitchen. “Put it on that table near the front,” he said, thinking Conner and Miss Carpenter could use a little more privacy. Then he quickly walked to intercept Sadie and his supper.