Summary

Chapter 29 is an account from Michael about their eventual arrival at the site for Fort Phil Kearny. Several scouts and fighters disagreed with the choice of site due to its vulnerability, but Carrington proceeded with construction anyway. Michael recalls riding in a scout party with Tom and a Mr. Bridger, who was a scout of some renown though Tom and Michael soon found him to be “some fierce kind of a blowhard” (221). Michael then laments that the fort is a place of death, and advises the Captain to leave as soon as he can.

In Chapter 30, Kohn discovers that Molloy did not pass the night in the hospital barracks but in the junior officers’ quarters drinking. He goes to retrieve him and finds him passed out on the floor, having burned his crutches for firewood the night before. Kohn returns him to the...