Rocky Mountain

Capt. Lafe Barstow:
Six rattle-headed kids and an old man: Kip Waterson, the baby-faced heir to a plantation; Pierre Duchesne, from French Louisiana; Pat Dennison, an old man, really, but a hard, reckless fighter who never gave ground while he lived; Kay Rawlins from the Mississippi steamboats, a rough and friendly man as the Indians now found out; Jimmy Wheat, a little redneck cropper who could fight like a wildcat with hydrophobia, who carried a useless little dog for 2,000 miles; Jonas Weatherby, the Texan, a seasoned plainsman at 18; Plank, another real plainsman, hard and bitter, with chain gang scars on his legs at 22.

[bloodthirsty Indians have surrounded Barstow and his companions]

Johanna Carter:
I never thought it would end this way.

Capt. Lafe Barstow:
There never was any other way. We just put it off awhile.