Shayne’s Reviews > Dead Man's Walk > Status Update

The parley group returns, Gus in high spirits, Call angry and fearful. Bes-Das relates Buffalo Hump’s requests to Cobb. Gus and Call go out to kill buffalo calves for dinner. Kirker tries to join but gets beaten down by Call.

Call is made a Corporal for his bravery during the river attack. The crew is stopped dead in their tracks as they see Comanches in the distance. Cobb suggests a parley and appoints Gus and Call to approach them.

The rangers cross the Brazos River, losing five companions to Buffalo Hump and the Comanches in the process. Call is attacked by a young boy who he shoots point blank in a startled reaction. Despite much pressure from the troop, he refuses to scalp the child and says he deserves a proper burial. Shadrach scalps him and throws him into the current anyway.

Cobb calls the expedition to order on an early rainy morning long before dawn. Gus, drunk pays a visit to Clara before departing and vows to marry her.

The rangers come upon a farm that has been sacked by the Comanches, the family slaughtered.

Call goes to the store and buys some liniment from Clara for Gus. Afterwards, she comes out and rubs it on his foot, promising to return the next morning if he is still there. The rangers get informed that Buffalo Hump has raided a nearby town and decide to follow the trail of destruction, leaving Gus and Johnny behind with the expectation of returning the next day.

While Call is hard at work and after Shadraxh returns from a hunt, Gus gets drunk after not being able to see Clara for the rest of the day. They go on a walk and Gus falls off a cliff. Call runs for help and finds the rest of the rangers drunk, but gets the help of Johnny, who seems least inebriated. At the scene, Johnny inexplicably fires his gun shortly before Gus is found with only and ankle injury.

The rangers arrive in Austin and sign up for the expedition under Caleb Cobb. While peddling in a general store for muskets, Gus meets and immediately falls head over heels in love with Clara, whose father owns the store.

The troop buries the burned bodies of the mule skinners.

A few weeks after the return to San Antonio, the troop, minus the Major who who had died of a fever, decides to join the expedition to capture Santa Fe under the command of Caleb Cobb.