Arthur Franz

            On Sunday after midnight I added fresh carpet tape to the edges of my mattress where it had gotten less sticky. I lint rolled the curtain between the bedroom and the living room and picked up quite a few bedbugs. I lint-rolled the top of my bed and found one but there were none on the pillow. I shook out my sheet and my comforter on the deck and went to bed around 1:30. 

            I got up at 5:00 and after yoga I finished revising my translation of “Elle voulait toucher du pognon” (She Wanted a Little Money) by Boris Vian. On Monday I’ll start working out the chords. 

            I weighed 90.4 kilos before breakfast, which is the lightest I’ve been in the morning since September 19. 

            I played my Kramer during song practice for the first of two sessions and it stayed in tune most of the time. 

            I cleared some more stuff out of the storage shelf in the bedroom. My biggest Rubbermaid storage container has a lot of stuff in it that I can probably get rid of and then use it for other things I want to keep. 

            I weighed 91.95 kilos before lunch. I had peanut butter and five-year-old cheddar on saltines with a glass of lemonade. 

            I sent an email to the landlord that the thermostat says the heat is on but it isn’t. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. 

            I weighed 90.85 kilos at 18:45. September 5 was the last evening when I was so kind to the scale. 

            I was still two days behind in my journal and worked on catching up. 

            I made pizza on a slice of 7 grain sandwich bread with marinara, tomato pesto, the last of the ham, and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a glass of Creemore lager while watching episode 5 of the TV series Custer. 

            Custer arrives at a telegraph station and picks up his orders from General Terry. Washington has put their man Benton Conant in charge of operation 763. The telegraph operator asks Custer if his long hair is a bother. Custer says he’s waiting for Crazy Horse to cut it since he promised to do it for nothing.

            A train arrives with Conant on board and several large crates, which Custer’s men have to unload from the train and put on wagons. Conant sends a telegram that reads, “Taking overland trail to medicine creek and western end of track”. 

            After the soldiers and Conant head for the trail, a Sioux warrior named Grey Fox who has been spying at the station enters the telegraph office, kills the operator, and reads Conant’s telegram indicating the route. 

            At the first rest, Custer clashes with Conant. He’d told his men not to light fires so as not to draw attention from the Sioux in their territory, but Conant tried to make coffee. Custer kicks out the fire. Custer tells Conant that although he is in command of the mission he doesn’t have the right to put his men in danger. 

            Grey Fox arrives at Crazy Horse’s camp to inform him that the soldiers have changed their route and that they should attack now. Crazy Horse does not want to lose warriors in such a battle. Grey Fox tells him that what’s in those crates is worth the sacrifice. Crazy Horse points out that Grey Fox is a white man and only Sioux by marriage so he asks why he should trust him. Grey Fox reminds Crazy Horse that he’s proved his right to be trusted 100 times over the last 10 years. Crazy Horse says they will attack but not yet. 

            The wagon carrying the boxes gets stuck in rough terrain and so Custer orders it unloaded. One of the crates gets dropped and breaks open, revealing that they are not carrying ammunition but $2 million in gold. Conant wants to keep it a secret but Custer informs his men that they are guarding gold and that it’s part of the money the US is paying Russia for the purchase of Alaska. 

            Custer informs Conant that he’s taking full command of the mission and he can complain about that to General Terry after the mission has been completed. 

            They see a man on horseback being pursued by Crazy Horse. Custer and his men come to his defence and drive Crazy Horse away. The man they rescued is Grey Fox, now in white man’s clothing and saying his name is Bludsoe. Custer invites him to travel with them. He warns Custer that the Overland Trail they plan on taking is too dangerous because of Crazy Horse and about 100 warriors. So Custer changes the route north through Lost Canyon. 

            On the way, Grey Fox uses a mirror to flash a signal to Crazy Horse, indicating the change of route. 

            That night Grey Fox has a secret meeting with Conant as it turns out they are in league. 

            They make it through the canyon but then Crazy Horse kills one of the soldiers with an arrow and then disappears. They don’t see any Sioux but according to Bludsoe they are outnumbered. Custer decides to hold up and send somebody back to Fort Hays for help. Bludsoe volunteers and asks California Joe to join him. They head out but Grey Fox knocks Joe out and the Sioux take him prisoner. Grey Fox comes back to Custer to say they got ambushed by the Sioux. 

            Crazy Horse has Joe tied up and tells Custer to surrender himself and the wagons or Joe will die. He gives Custer until the moon goes down to decide. 

            Custer tells Trooper Cassidy he’s going to ask him to risk his neck by sneaking out of camp.

            Custer takes Bludsoe with him to try to rescue Joe. As they crawl, Grey Fox tries to knife Custer from behind but he detects him, they struggle and then Grey Fox falls on his own knife. 

            From the distance Crazy Horse hears a cavalry bugle call the charge and the sound of gunfire. Crazy Horse and his men head in the direction of the bugle except for three guarding Joe. California kicks one of them as Custer takes on the others and then unties Joe. 

            Crazy Horse realizes he’s been tricked and says he’ll attack at sunrise. 

            Custer tells Bustard to break out the powder. The men pour out trails of gunpowder and plant the kegs in various positions. Conant tries to set off one of the kegs to warn Crazy Horse but Custer stops him. They fight but Custer wins. Conant admits he was in league with Grey Fox and Crazy Horse. The Sioux would get half the gold and Conant the other half. 

            They are surrounded by Sioux, who attack. Custer sets off the fuses and the powder kegs blow up just as the Sioux are on top of them. That plus firing their guns causes Crazy Horse to retreat. During the battle Conant took an arrow in the heart. 

            Custer delivers the gold. 

            Grey Fox was played by Arthur Franz, who during WWII served in the US Army Air Forces as a navigator. He was shot down over Romania and captured to be placed in a POW camp. He escaped. He retired with the rank of major. he made his screen debut in Jungle Patrol in 1948. He co-starred in Tarnished, Eight Iron Men, Invaders From Mars, Sands of Iwo Jima, Flight to Mars, The Steel Cage, Battle Taxi, Bobby Ware is Missing, Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, Running Target, The Wild Party, Back From the Dead, and Hellcats of the Navy. He starred in Red Stallion in the Rockies, Monster On the Campus, The Sniper, New Orleans Uncensored, The Flame Barrier, The Atomic Submarine, and Sisters of Death.