Checking his railroad pocket watch, Conner commented that it was five o’clock on the nose, but there was no sign of a bugler sounding out mess call. Surprisingly, the appearance of a fifteen-man patrol attracted very little interest from the soldiers casually walking toward what Hawk guessed was the mess hall. Conner pointed out the headquarters building and led his patrol directly toward it. The troopers were still dismounting when an officer walked outside to meet them. “Robert Sessions,” the lieutenant greeted Conner, and extended his hand. “What brings you to Fort Benton?”

“Mathew Conner,” he returned. “We’re out of Fort Ellis, trying to find out what we can about your missing mule train.”

Sessions didn’t hide his surprise. “You came up here from Bozeman to investigate the trouble with those Mormons? You must not have any more to do than we do up here.”

“Well, we haven’t run outta work to do at Ellis, but your problem with the mule train was of interest to our post commander.” He went on to explain Major Brisbin’s personal interest in the welfare of his nephew, prompting the major to extend a helping hand to the Fort Benton garrison.

“We sent a patrol all the way down to Great Falls to look for those people and we couldn’t find a clue as to what happened to them. But a few days ago, six survivors showed up here and said they were ambushed, the rest of the party were killed, and the outlaws got away with all their money for the church.”

“Six survived?” Conner asked. “How many were killed?”

“Twenty-eight, counting women and children,” Sessions answered. “They said the only reason they got away was because they got pushed in the river when they started shooting. There was no warning, they just suddenly started executing everybody.”

“Who was it?” Hawk asked. “Indians, white men, who?”

“They said it was white men, there weren’t no Indians.” He paused while that sank in. “Listen, those six survivors are staying in town at the First Baptist Church. Why don’t you go talk to them? The fellow you want to talk to is Donald Lewis. He’s the man who organized the whole trip.” Hawk and Conner exchanged glances in reaction to the mention of the name.