bey
you."

Raoul eyed the short colonel's mismatched uniform parts and wondered
where he got the gall to criticize. But he wanted to be on this man's
good side.

"My wife and two sons were murdered by the redskins. At Victor. They've
been dead for two weeks, and I just found out about it last night."

Taylor reached out and gripped his arm. "Damn! I am sorry, Colonel de
Marion. I should have realized you might have lost loved ones there.
I'll see that _you_ get leave to go home."

Back to Victor? Raoul trembled at the thought of having to see the ruins
of Victoire and the town--the graves of Clarissa and Phil and Andy.
Having to face people who, like Eli, might believe that he put them in
harm's way. Besides, he had a mission to carry out. Kill Indians. And
there were no Indians to kill in Victor now.

"No, Colonel, no," he stammered. "I want to go after Black Hawk's
people. We can't let them get away."

"Nor will we. General Atkinson and I were talking about that just
yesterday--and about you, as it happens. You own a Mississippi
steamboat, don't you?"

Puzzled, Raoul answered, "Yes, the _Victory_. It makes a regular run
from St. Louis to Galena."

"We're certain that if we don't catch up with Black Hawk, wherever he's
hiding up in the Michigan Territory, that he'll try to take his band
west, to the Mississippi. If he gets across it, we'll have a hell of a
time catching him." Taylor's eyes glinted hard as glass marbles. "We are
determined, Colonel, not to allow him to make a successful retreat. We
have to show all the tribes that they can't murder white people and then
light out for Indian country and get off scot-free."

Taylor's words, now that the near-mutiny was over, lifted Raoul's heart.
He had left Victor in April hoping for revenge for Helene and for his
own sufferings of years ago. But now there were more slaughtered
innocents to avenge--and now he had the army of the United States to
help him do it.

"I'll do anything to get those redskins."

"With your ship patrolling the stretch of river where they're likely to
cross, we could be sure that Black Hawk won't escape us."

"You want me to go back and get the _Victory_ ready?" He felt himself
trembling again.

"For now you'll go along with us into the Michigan Territory," Taylor
said. "But if it looks as if Black Hawk is making a run for the
Mississippi, you'll see that we cut them off. The _Victory_, eh? Aptly
named."

Raoul's grieving, veng