According to Comanche belief, Ethan explains, this will prevent the dead man's spirit from entering the spirit lands and force him to wander forever. On finding a fresh Comanche grave, the men unearth the body but are shocked when Ethan shoots out its eyes. The posse then sets out to find the girls. The men head back, but it is too late, for upon their arrival at the Edwards home, they discover that everyone has been brutally murdered except for Lucy and Debbie, who have been taken by the Comanche. When they find that the bulls have been killed with Comanche lances, Ethan declares that what the Indians really wanted was to lure the men away from home, thereby leaving their ranches open to attack. Although Ethan is somewhat contemptuous of Sam, he joins Martin and a posse in pursuit of the thieves. Samuel Johnson Clayton, a captain in the Texas Rangers as well as an old family friend, announces that the cattle of local rancher Lars Jorgensen have been stolen. Because Martin, an earnest but friendly young man, is part Cherokee, Ethan treats him coldly, even though it was he who rescued the lad when his parents were massacred in an Indian raid years earlier. Although it is 1868, Martha, her husband Aaron, their children Debbie, Lucy and Ben, and their adopted son, Martin Pawley, have not seen Ethan since he left them to fight for the Confederacy during the Civil War. Martha Edwards opens the door of her cabin to the arid Texas landscape outside just as her brother-in-law, Ethan Edwards, approaches on horseback.
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