"A Sea of Blood"
Aboard the Sea Dragon a sailor suddenly falls from the sail rigging, screaming all the way down. Scalphunter sees the man fall and tells Smith the man is falling. Captain Smith remarks that men fall on a ship all the time, especially if they are no good and scrawny and... WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU ARE GOING? Scalphunter starts running across the deck, pushing aside two sailors swabbing the deck and manages to break the mans fall and catches him.
The doctor of the Sea Dragon comes forward, stating he has never seen anything like that in 30 years! He asks if Scalphunter can move his arms, but Scalphunter replies that his people have strong arms from wrestling bulls. The Doc examines MacLawson (the man who fell) and says that he will be fine after some brandy. Capt. Smith says they will do nothing of the sort because that man will get ten lashes for disrupting the deck. Doc Wilson says that MacLawson is in shock and the flogging could kill him. Smith bristles at anyone questioning his authority.
Smith gets up in Scalphunters face and says that he has taken the money to smuggle the guns but as afar as he is concerned, Scalphunter and his Reb friends are nothing but dirt. Scalphunter watches as MacLawson is tied to the mast and sadistically lashed by Smith. He notes that this is no worse than what the Kiowa women did to prisoners but they never took pleasure in it as Smith is demonstrating. He fights back the urge to kill Smith but he knows he cannot betray the trust that President Lincoln placed in him to smash the blockade runners.
The scourging complete, a cry comes from the Crow's Nest that sails have been spotted to port. It is quickly identified as a Yankee gunboat and all hands are armed and ready to fight. The cannons are loaded and as the two ships come aside each other, the massive steel barrels belch forth careening balls of death and destruction. Eventually the two ships join together and the fight becomes hand to hand as sailors and gun runners tear into each other. Scalphunter does not see a Union sailor coming behind him with a hatchet until Capt. Smith guns the sailor down.
Eventually the battle ends with the death of every Union sailor and the burning and sinking of their ship. Smith says that every encounter is like this, a battle to the death. Scalphunter asks if he finds honor in this to which Smith says he is in it for the money, honor gets a man killed. Just then a deckhand comes up and tells Smith that a cannonball tore through the mainmast. It can be patched so detectives in the shipyard can't tell they were in a battle but it can't be fixed for sailing. Smith says that changes their plans. They can use steam to get back to port but without sails they can't encounter another gunboat and can't meet their contact to pick up the guns and ammo.
Scalphunter tells him the mission must be completed and pulls a knife on Smith and twists Smiths arm behind his back. Scalphunter demands a rifle and ammo and will hold watch over Smith until they obtain the weapons and are back in port. On into the night, for six hours, Scalphunter stands guard over Smith. Doc Wilson and MacLawson talk in hushed whispers, MacLawson saying that if the Indian doesn't kill Smith, then he will. MacLawson hasn't been ashore for three years and what more can be done to him now? MacLawson was shanghaied in Boston, he used to be a silversmith, but now his hands are ruined, his nerves shot, his intended career gone.
Then a cry from above, lights have been spotted, it is the King George! The two ships rendezvous and the cargo is transferred under the armed watch of Scalphunter. They sail off and at dawn a blockade is seen coming towards then. Smith says they can't run and it's too late to dump the cargo, they will have to fight. As the cannons are readied, Scalphunter knows that this is his moment to hand Smith over to the Union Navy. He comes upon Smith from behind, rifle raised to knock him out, but a sharp eyed sailor sees this and knocks Scalphunter out from behind.
Laying on the deck, vaguely through the veil of unconsciousness that envelopes him, Scalphunter feels the cannons firing, knows the blasting of the cannonballs, feels the ship turn and engage the Union ship and he hears the scream of the Union sailors as they die amidst the fire and blood soaked waves of the ocean.
When he finally comes to, he is bound and staring down Smith's gun barrel. They are in dock and Smith says he was very surprised when Scalphunter's 'friends' on the dock had never seen him before. Therefore Scalphunter must be a Yankee spy. Smith smashes his pistol into Scalphunter's jaw. The 'friends' wanted Scalphunter so they could take him to the Confederate authorities but Smith is gonna save them the trouble with a nicely placed single bullet. As he takes aim, MacLawson suddenly appears with a cargo hook and buries it in Smiths left shoulder.
Smith staggers backward, knocking Scalphunter into the bay and discharging his pistol, killing MacLawson. Smith shouts he wants the redskin dead and a sailor says he must be, falling into the water with his arms tied behind his back. Smith says he wants Scalphunter and MacLawson both in hell. Doc says he's not sure about the Indian but MacLawson had already been there.
Later we see Scalphunter surface beneath the dock. He is enraged and he is now on the hunt for Captain Smith.
Statistics for this issue
Men Killed by Scalphunter - Zero
Running Total - 101
Compared to Jonah Hex - 17th appearance and Scalphunter has 101 vs Jonah's 81
Scalps Taken - 0
Running Total - 14
Injuries - Knocked out.
Timeline - We don't know how long they were at sea, but it does cover a full day and night and into the next day. Maybe we can be generous and say five days in August.
So, let's talk about the fall that opens the book. I read the dialog aloud and added a few seconds for running across the deck, making it about 16 seconds that we saw MacLawson falling. According to the wonderful website Omni calculator, an object falling for 16 seconds started at a height of 4,118 feet and reaches terminal velocity of 204 mph. Now a main mast on a pirate ship is 222 feet and reverse engineering the math, means, that at best, MacLawson fell for 3.7 seconds and attained a speed of 81 mph.
So now you can decide for yourself just how string and fast a Kiowa brave can be.
We get a new inker with Romeo Tanghal and it creates some very expressive scenes with smoother inking than Dominguez's sketchy style. The story is pretty good with Ke-Woh-No-Tey, seeing, once again, the barbarism of the 'civilized' white men, their war without honor and the sadistic butchery they can inflict upon their own men. Another good chapter in the Indian Spy saga.
We also get an ads for:
A contest for coming up with a daring rescue that could be performed on the Wonder Woman TV show.
Superman and Hostess Fruit Pies save the day in The Ionic Storm.
Batman and Robin action figures with magnetic hands from Mego.
American Seeds hawks their wares on the back cover.
Next Issue: A battle across the rooftops of Norfolk and an amputation.
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