| | Jeffords sees vultures, follows them to find a wounded Apache boy. He risks being to stabbed, to give the boy water from his own canteen, then removes the buckshot from the boy's back. He is then captured by Apaches who agree to let him go but recapture him when a party of white prospectors approaches. They kill some prospectors, but capture and torture others as Jeffords watches. Released, Jeffords tells his story in town, which provokes a quarrel which ends without gunplay only because Jeffords is tired of the killing. Jeffords turns down a scouting job, deciding on his own to take advanced lessons in Apache language and culture so he can meet Cochise (the Apache leader) and request safe passage for the U.S. mail. He rides into the Apache stronghold, watched all the way by armed Apaches, and his meeting with Cochise goes well. He returns to town and announces the agreement and even bets $300 that the first 5 mail riders to be sent out will return safely. | | Jeffords sees vultures, follows them to find a wounded Apache boy. He risks being to stabbed, to give the boy water from his own canteen, then removes the buckshot from the boy's back. He is then captured by Apaches who agree to let him go but recapture him when a party of white prospectors approaches. They kill some prospectors, but capture and torture others as Jeffords watches. Released, Jeffords tells his story in town, which provokes a quarrel which ends without gunplay only because Jeffords is tired of the killing. Jeffords turns down a scouting job, deciding on his own to take advanced lessons in Apache language and culture so he can meet Cochise (the Apache leader) and request safe passage for the U.S. mail. He rides into the Apache stronghold, watched all the way by armed Apaches, and his meeting with Cochise goes well. He returns to town and announces the agreement and even bets $300 that the first 5 mail riders to be sent out will return safely. |