father.”
Colonel Dixon looked at Falcon with an expression of shocked surprise. “Wait a minute, a white man killed Keytano’s daughter, and you took her body back?”
“Yes,” said Falcon.
Dixon preened his mustache with his finger. “I’ll be damned. I don’t know whether to praise you for your courage, or damn you for your foolhardiness. Maybe both. It’s a wonder Keytano let you out alive.”
“Not really,” Falcon said. “Keytano is a man of honor, after all.”
“How can you call an Indian a man of honor?” the colonel asked, punctuating his question by sticking his pipe back in his mouth.
“Colonel, do you doubt that Indians can have honor?” Falcon asked.
“That certainly hasn’t been my experience.”
“How long have you been dealing with Indians?”
“Well, I confess that I’ve only been out here for about six months,” Colonel Dixon replied. “I ... uh, haven’t really had to deal with them at all yet.”
“I see. So, where did you get the idea that Indians had no honor?”
“Just things that I’ve heard,” Colonel Dixon replied, clearly uncomfortable now with the direction the conversation was going.
“Indians are like anyone else, Colonel. There are Indians of honor, and there are those who are dishonorable.”
“I’ll, uh, take your word for it,” Dixon said. “So, Sheriff, if your deputy took the girl’s body back and got out alive, why are you here to see me?”
“The other day a drummer left Oro Blanco, driving a buckboard up to Arivica. He was driving a rented team, and the next day the team brought the buckboard back to the livery stable. The drummer, a man named Arnold Johnson, was in the back, mutilated and scalped.”
“And you think it was retaliation for the chief’s daughter?” Colonel Dixon asked.
“I think it was in direct retaliation, yes,” Sheriff Corbin replied.
Colonel Dixon sighed. “After that business with the prospectors, I was afraid it might come to this. All right, I’ll ask General Miles for orders to put the Fifth Cavalry into the field.”
Falcon held up his hand. “No, don’t do that, Colonel,” he said. “At least not yet. I don’t think there’s any need for you to call out anyone. I don’t believe this is a war with the Cababi Band. I think this is nothing more than one ambitious Indian who has been able to talk three or four others into following him.”
“Are you talking about Keytano?”
“No, I don’t think it is Keytano. So far, Keytano is on our side, or at least he’s keeping most of the warriors back on the reservation. The one who is causing all the trouble is Naiche’s nephew, Chetopa.”
Colonel Dixon stroked his chin. “Chetopa? I’m not sure I’ve ever even heard of him.”
“Yes, and that’s Chetopa’s problem. Nobody has heard of him, and he’s not real happy about that. He wants his name to be spoken in the same tone as Naiche, Geronimo, and Cochise. If you turn out the Army, you’ll be giving him exactly what he wants. It will not only give him the notoriety he’s looking for; it will give him the opportunity to recruit a lot more warriors.”
“Then, if you don’t mind my asking, how would you propose that we take care of him without turning out the Army?” Colonel Dixon asked.
“You don’t need the Army to take care of him. I’ll take care of him myself,” Falcon said.
Colonel Dixon laughed. “You’ll take care of him? All by yourself?”
“Yes.”
“Aren’t you afraid you might be biting off more than you can chew?”
“Colonel Dixon,” Sheriff Corbin said. “Maybe it is time I introduced this fella to you.”
“You already introduced him, didn’t you?” Colonel Dixon replied. “You said he was your deputy.”
“Yes, but I didn’t give you his name. It’s MacCallister,” Sheriff Corbin said. “Falcon MacCallister.”
“Falcon MacCallister?” the colonel said, clearly searching for where he had heard the name before. Then it came to him. “The hell you say.
“Yes,” Sheriff Corbin said. “
“Well, I’ll be damn,” Colonel Dixon said. He stuck his hand out again as a big smile spread across his face. “I am pleased to meet you, Mr. MacCallister. General Miles says you are a one-man army. So I reckon if any one man could take care of this Chetopa person, you’d be that one. Is there anything you would like for the Army to do?”
Falcon nodded. “As a matter of fact, there is. You might send a few patrols out,” he said. “And if you see any prospectors getting over onto Indian land, discourage them. Oh, and while you are at it, it would strengthen my hand greatly if you would open up that dam and let some of the Santa Cruz River water back onto the reservation.”
Colonel Dixon shook his head. “I can’t. I wish I could do that, Mr. MacCallister. Because, in fact, I do think the Indians are being cheated out of their rightful supply of water. And I know that the Indian agent has made an appeal to the territorial governor, but the governor hasn’t made a decision yet. He figures there are too many white people who want the dam to stay closed, and if he does anything, they’ll contact Washington and he’ll wind up
