A wounded and fainting Bat delivers a message to a Major at Fort Logan ordering the Colonel to skip a meeting with the Indians. However, the Major believing the Colonel is impeding his political career doesn't deliver the message.
In 1876 Colorado is a new state with men hoping to be part of the state's first representatives in Congress. To be appointed a senator it helped to have a solid military record. Bat acting as an Army scout has a confidential message with orders for Colonel Downey at Fort Logan. The message contains orders for Colonel Downey to skip a peace conference with the Indians who plan to kill him. Bat spots an Indian ambush during his trip but is wounded by the Indians. The fainting Bat is forced to deliver the message to the fort's ambitious second-in-command Major John Whitsett who destroys the message. The next day the Colonel leaves for the peace conference before Bat awakes resulting in the death of him and his entire patrol on the way to the peace conference. Bat believes that the second-in-command intentionally allowed his commanding officer to walk into the trap in order to further his own political career and attempts to prove it by bringing back the Colonel from the dead when he finds the dead patrol being buried by water carrier Ben Pick and his female Indian companion Nione.—David Bassler