| Show down carefully when he saw two frightened eyes looking up at him andboyish face withdeep jagged and bloody wound across one cheek rusted and ancient rifle with part of the breech blasted away lay near the boy Evidently he had been hunting for food when the gun had exploded It never occured to Andy that this was the enemy been the target as he dug clean white rags from his and he could have saddle With canteen in hand he again approached the wounded Indian who tried to slither farther into the brush and high grass With kind and assuring words Andy at last got the young Indian to lie still while he cleaned the wound and added compresses to stop the flow of blood With the wound clumsily dressed he gave the otherdrink from his canteen Brown fingers clawed desperately at the container trying to wrest it from Andyhands but Andy held on Evidently the Indian had been without water for some time As Andy moved back to his horse the Indian lay back in the grass his eyes follwoing Andyevery move What to do Andy thought Indian would die for the wound was badly infected Well it wasnhis responsibility This was the enemy This bit of his feet was the one reason why he was on his way to join the He looked down and pleading Evidently the certainly humanity at Minute Men The young maneyes were centered on the canteen wild expression that Andy couldn would be inhuman not to help when he could water soon ignore Well why not It Anyway he would reach fresh Andy hoisted his short frame into the saddle then rode close and dropped the canteen The young Indian handed it to him then when he saw the work of art faint smile touched his 1ips His fever-enflamed eyes expressed his gratitude Andy sat motionless looking down This was the enemy and the reasonable thing to do under the circumstances was to destroy the enemy Instead he had given his last drop of water towounded Indian Andy shrugged and nudged his horse Oh well what was one wounded Indian more or less Anyway he wasyoung man like himself Captain Lyons looked across his desk at the young man standing at rigid attention and smothered his amusement by concentrating his attention on the mass of papers before him Enthusiastic young blood striving for expression he thought The prestige romance and glory of beingsoldier far outweighed the more realistic mental and physical anguish associated with this necessary contribution to the history of the west The dirty game of war attracted the unthinking simply because it was part of the great adventure yet he could not say no to the physically able simply because the west needed this young blood even though it took butmatter of minutes sometimes to strip the glory from the pitiful realities leaving life exposed like raw sore 43 |
