Arrowhead

Oh, she stood right there In the moonlight bare...

Off.

- What, here? - Maybe.

A two-week scout and no signs. Now 15 miles from the fort,

that inner sense of yours has gotta act up.

Another stretch of sand.

Wore it out cleaning up their tracks.

Cut a lot of fresh branches.

Took a lot of rubbing.

The main party headed toward the fort.

What are Apaches going into the fort for? Trade for trinkets?

A couple of them headed up that way.

Maybe to the other side of the hill.

I'm going up.

- Let's go. - Not you.

I wanna be sure where the main bunch is.

You just go along easy.

Are you talking as plain Ed Bannon,

or you talking as Mr. Bannon, Chief of Scouts?

I'm all through talking, Sandy. Just go along easy.

Turn around, dirt.

Bannon!

If I always obeyed the Chief of Scouts, the Chief of Scouts wouldn't live long.

Halt.

What went wrong?

- Ed Bannon's up there, sir. - That's what went wrong, sir.

And Sandy Mackinnon. Both all right.

Take a detail, Captain North. We're going up.

- Sergeant Stone. - Yes, sir.

First two set of twos. Lead up.

Lead up.

Noses up.

- Hi, Ed. - Hi, Bill.

- Jim Eagle. What tribe were they? - Tontos. Azuni's band.

I asked what tribe they were.

Bannon's never wrong about Apaches, except this Apache.

They're Tontos, sir. Chief Azuni's men.

This is one time I wish you were a soldier, Bannon,

so I could have you drummed out of the Army for what you've just done.

I'd be interested to know what I've just done, colonel.

Orders from Washington, try a peaceful approach with the Apaches.

Would you mind clearing that up for me, colonel? I'm a little...

I'm a little backward.

Today Chief Azuni was to bring his people into the post.

These men Bannon murdered were to lead me to him.

Colonel, these are Apaches you're dealing with.

You're no longer telling us how to deal with Apaches.

In civilian talk, you're fired.

I just resigned.

He just resigned. Which way you going back to the post?

The way every detail goes back.

Pick another way, colonel.

These Apaches were here for peace. Do you see any paint on their faces?

They don't have to have it on their faces, but they can't fight without paint.

They gotta have it on them somewhere.

Isn't that right, Jim Eagle?

It is not for me to say. I am no longer a savage.

Yeah.

See what I mean?

Same here.

Jim Eagle, any truth in that?

No truth, sir.

- No truth in you either, Apache. - That's enough, Bannon.

Without your help, we'll try again with Azuni and his Tontos,

and we'll succeed.

Pick another way back to the post anyway, colonel.

We're at peace.

It's a good way to stay alive while you're at peace.

Advice from the white Apache.

Sir, request permission for burial detail.

Permission granted.

Sergeant Stone, pick and shovel.

Ives, get that packhorse up here.

Burial detail, forward.

Lead out.

I'll get our horses, Chief Ex-of-Scouts.

Those Tontos were decoys.

That's adobe country the colonel's riding through,

sometimes three, four ravines to the mile.

A ravine's got two walls.

From behind any wall, any time, the Tontos can spring

the prettiest ambush you ever saw.

And they get to pick the wall.

Azuni gave his word he'd come in peacefully today.

You're as blind as the colonel, if that's possible. And it's possible.

Don't say that to me, Ed. I'm Army, I like it.

Yeah? You were probably pretty good at Gettysburg.

But this isn't Gettysburg.

What do you know about Gettysburg? You've never been east of the Pecos.

If you had, you wouldn't wear those Rebel pants.

- Sure I would. I like gray. - You like being ornery.

You keep on hating Apaches, we're gonna be digging one of those for you.

I don't hate them, I know them.

What you did stopped the Tonto tribe from coming in.

Which it never was.

What's worse, the Chiricahuas might not come in tomorrow.

Chiricahuas. There's no white man on earth could get them to come in.

Tomorrow.

Toriano's Back East.

He's coming to the post tomorrow from the Indian school.

How do you suppose we could get the rest of the Apaches to come in

if we couldn't guarantee them Toriano's people would come?

And he just happens to get back from the East the same day?

Coincidence. It happens. Use your common sense.

For four years, I was the adopted son of an Apache medicine man.

They got their own kind of common sense.

Toriano's people are coming in

because his father asked the Army for help.

- Chattez? - Good man.

Maybe he is. So tomorrow he brings in his Chiricahuas,

the most vicious Indian on earth, to be shipped off to a reservation

the same day his son gets back from school?

You call that a coincidence?

You know so much about Apaches. What's the answer?

I haven't got hold of it yet, but there is one.

Well, in the meantime...

Jordan, Cassidy, Ives.

- Yes, sir? - Finish up.

- Yes, sir. - Yes, sir.

The quickest way is straight across that river.

That's not the way the detail went back.

Won't do any good to tell you it's the safest.

So I'll repeat, it's the quickest way to catch up with the colonel.

- Forward. - Lead out.

- Up there! - Look in the hills! Chiricahuas!

Stone, get going on foot.

Behind the rocks.

Get back. Continue firing!

The closer we get, the more we get. Come on. On the hill! Fire!

We could've got a lot more if you'd let us get closer.

They could've got a lot more too.

If you want to give orders, join the Army.

We can still mount up some kind of a detail, sir.

What else could we expect?

The Apaches played fair, sent out their go-betweens,

and Bannon murdered them.

- Get rid of him. That's an order. - Yes, sir.

Get rid of...

I'll get rid of him right now.

Stone.

All right, let's get started.

Take the dead back to the post for burial.

Halt.

What happened?

All because Bannon hates Apaches.

This many dead would've been alive.

- Dismiss the company, sergeant. - Yes, sir.

Twos left!

Why didn't you tell them those Apaches weren't coming into the fort?

- They were waiting for us. - Tell them.

Who we gonna convince?

Come on up and have a drink.

Bannon is back. Nita's glad. Nita bring you laundry.

Now, what more does a man like you want?

Nita?

I don't understand you. You say you hate Apaches.

She might be half-Mexican, but the other half's Apache.

Well, among other things, she's the post laundress.

Washes my clothes awful good.

- She's still half-Apache, remember? - I always remember.

Going to see Lee?

Why? Did she say she'd marry you yet?

Practically said.

- You let me know when she does. - Leave her alone.

Look, Bill, with the colonel dead, you're top man around here.

But I've just been fired, remember? Don't try to give me orders.

Are you gonna make me stand here, or do I get myself a drink?

Please go, Ed.

I'll say again,

your husband had the finest taste in whiskey a captain's salary could buy.

Just have your drink.

Am I wrong, or wasn't there a time when you said it'd be just us?

Was I wrong for not knowing what you were?

All I've gotta do is be around you and everything I think

comes out wrong when I say it.

Even when I want it to be good, it comes out wrong.

Because you're one thing and I'm another. Can't you remember?

Ed, please stop bringing back what we started out to be.

We're what we are now. And you're not unhappy.

I watched you ride in. I saw your laundress speak to you.

- What's the matter with Nita? - Nothing.

She's a good laundress. You never make any offers.

Glasses are over there.

They are if you're drinking tea.

I'm not drinking tea.

The tumblers are still where they used to be.

Captain Frank Wilson,

dearly beloved of Lela Clark Wilson.

Ed, please go.

Yeah, I'll go.

I'll go like I've had to go ever since you married a man

who fought the Apaches like he fought the Virginians outside of Richmond.

You still can't stand me close to you.

Ed, please don't.

Will you listen to me? Will you come out here?

Well, we're out here.

I watched the column come in.

A lot of casualties. Very unusual for a colonel to be among them.

I heard the sergeant blame the deaths on you.

You've got good hearing.