A Thunder of Drums (1961)

George Hamilton: Lt. Curtis McQuade

Photos 

Quotes 

• Lt. Curtis McQuade : You saw that trail we crossed a couple hours back, sir?

  Captain Stephen Maddocks : Eighteen ponies, Mister, headed north crossed our line of march about 10 o'clock this morning

  Lt. Curtis McQuade : I made it, ah, twenty to twenty-five, sir, crossed about dawn. I was undoubtedly wrong, sir.

  Captain Stephen Maddocks : You were, sir.

  Lt. Curtis McQuade : There were oats on that trail, sir.

  Captain Stephen Maddocks : Well, that's quite right, Mr. McQuade. You're picking up.

  Lt. Curtis McQuade : It was a Comanche trail, sir.

  Captain Stephen Maddocks : Well, now.

  Lt. Curtis McQuade : Comanche marks, sir.

  [pulls Indian totem from inside coat hands it to CPT Maddocks] 

  Lt. Curtis McQuade : Fastened circle of the moon... Llano Estacado mark. And those oats they're feeding their ponies must have been Second Cavalry oats. Mr. Gresham's oats. Where else would they get oats?

  Captain Stephen Maddocks : So, what you're insinuating I do, Mister, is hot tail it north on that trail, round up that party of eighteen, beat it out of them what they did to Gresham and his patrol before they stole his field issue of oats... is that it?

  Lt. Curtis McQuade : Yes, sir, that's exactly it.

  Captain Stephen Maddocks : This is a very good bivouac area, Mr. McQuade, and it has a very ripe smell to go with it.

  Lt. Curtis McQuade : Must be a dead coyote on the rise. Wind shifted to blow it down.

  Captain Stephen Maddocks : Oats grow wild, so I've been told, Mister. Wild oats have smaller kernels, narrower. Issue oats are cultivated, fat kernels, short, snub husks, short tassels. You make a complete study of the matter when you have time, Mister."

  Lt. Curtis McQuade : Yes, sir. I will.

  Captain Stephen Maddocks : And now you take a deep breath. Take a deep breath. Get that smell in your nostrils and you tell me one more time that it's a dead coyote.

  [CPT Maddocks walks alone to the edge of a ravine and peers into it] 

  Captain Stephen Maddocks : Alright, Mr. McQuade, come on down here. Come on!

  [the slain bodies of Gresham's command are strewn about the bottom of the ravine] 

  Captain Stephen Maddocks : Take a good look, Mr. McQuade. You smell the smell, Mister? And it was a dead coyote? And that was a military mistake. You found oats on the trail, and they were issue oats, and that was a military mistake. This is not a school room, Mr. McQuade. Out here when you fail in a subject you do not go to the blackboard and try again. And that

  [pointing to the dead bodies] 

  Captain Stephen Maddocks : , Mr. McQuade, that is what a graduation dance looks like out here!

  Lt. Curtis McQuade : The Comanche are not...

  Captain Stephen Maddocks : You keep your mouth shut! You and I

  [will] 

  Captain Stephen Maddocks : wade into this mess and find out what mistakes Mr. Gresham and his men made. Here!

  [Maddock thrusts totem back into McQuade's hands]