At Fort Laramie, the uncomfortable women sleep on wooden cots. May is not so upbeat now, pondering the past which led her here. Writing to Harry, May hopes to return to him in Chicago after her mission is finished.
The women are imprisoned at the fort for safety from the Fort Indians, who are drunken and abusive, selling their own women to the highest bidder. May meets Captain John Bourke, who doubts white women can change the Indian culture, warning that, after three hundred years, the American Indian has learned only vices from the white man. Helen Flight discusses the barbaric treatment of birds who give feathers for fashion, upsetting Lydia Bradley in her fashionable hat.
May "desires" the Captain, although he is engaged to.....
