Chapter 32Bear was conscious but in a bad way when I reached him. My side was bleeding, so I stripped off my shirt to bind my midriff tightly before dropping to the ground at his side. Uncertain if he was taking it all in, I tried to make him understand the situation.
“Hanlihan…dead?”
I went over everything again and finished by telling him we had to go back to Fort Robinson.
“No!” The exclamation set him to gasping for breath. “Clouds…Buffalo Leg. Gone now. Back…uh, to Pine Ridge.”
“There’s a doctor at the fort. You need help. And I’m shot in the side. We both need help.”
“How bad?”
“I’ll make it. But I need to be treated. They can do that at the fort. For both of us.”
“Arrest us…killing Hanlihan.”
“No, he was a deserter.”
He closed his eyes, skepticism painted across his pain-fi
