him. Patchen nodded and he went on in. Chappie was sitting at the bar. He got up and he and Patchen hugged.
âSo they throw you out?â said Chappie.
âYup,â said Patchen. âFound some stuff, but there everything you do is on a computer. This bunch of idiots weâve got for a government is so paranoid now they donât like anyone looking for anything. I âlacked proof of legitimate historical interest.ââ
âHuh?â said Chappie.
âI was not there as a qualified historian. I am a wounded soldier, from their war that is not going as they thought it would. They are obsessed that one or another of us will say what a bunch of incompetent jerks they are,â said Patchen.
âEverybody knows that already,â said Madelaine. She had put down her beadwork, and was looking angry.
âBut I did find out quite a lot,â said Patchen, âand as I expected, having had dealings with these fools before, there is someone who is not yet of interest to them who promised to keep looking. â¦â
Chappie and Du Pré and Madelaine looked at him.
Patchen began, âPershing and two companies of the Tenth Cavalry were sent at the request of the governor to remove âundesirable noncitizensâ from two places in Montana. They began on the twenty-first of January 1910, and they started shipping Métis out the next day from Helena, north to the Great Northern Line. They rounded up many in Great Falls. They sent the loaded cars out on the twenth-eighth. â¦â
Madelaine pointed to a glass.
âOh, please,â said Patchen, âa beer, any draft is fine. â¦â
âEight days,â said Chappie, âand it was over.â
âYes,â said Patchen, âbut I found one odd note on one report. A Lieutenant Albert, who was sent with six troopers to apprehend some undesirable noncitizens fleeing through remote country. â¦â
âWhat did he do?â said Du Pré.
âI couldnât find his report,â said Patchen. âIt should have been there. It was a separate event. â¦â Du Pré nodded.
âAnd I could not find the date when Albert and his men were sent. Which is very odd, since such departures should have been noted,â said Patchen.
âFavor to somebody,â said Du Pré. âAmalieâs people were running, they kill and eat couple cows. â¦â
âBig rancher,â said Madelaine.
âWhat I donât know, too,â said Patchen, âis why they were classed as noncitizens. Indians were wards of the government then; it was pretty standard.â
âNot Métis,â said Du Pré. âThey donât belong to either Canada or America then. Many donât belong until 1957.â
âBecause they werenât a tribe?â said Patchen. âThey were half-breeds?â
âMixed-bloods,â said Du Pré.
âAnd thatâs all that I found, until I was more or less asked to leave before I found myself under arrest.â
âArrest?â said Madelaine.
âThe charming fellow who came to my apartment said something about being ordered to active service in a place I would not like,â said Patchen. âI resigned my commission the next day.â
Susan Klein came in, and Madelaine gathered up her little plastic envelopes of beads and her threads and the piece of soft doeskin she was working in a fine beaded pattern. âSo,â said Madelaine, âyou have not met Amalie and now you will. She is at Jacquelineâs and she will be having supper, an hour or so, you come, too.â
Patchen smiled.
âIâd love to meet her,â he said. And then he looked sad. He walked outside, and he was there waiting beside his little SUV when the others came out.
âI ride with him,â said Chappie. He walked across the street and the two men got in Patchenâs car. Du Pré and Madelaine got in her little