THE BUFFALO SOLDIERS

Irish-born Byrne, who had fought on the Union side, is now the Lieutenant of ""The Tenth Nubian Horse, "" a troop of Negro recruits, assigned to hunt buffalo with a Comanche tribe for the Indians' food. Solitary, disciplined, Byrne's relations with the soldiers and the Indians are difficult but he establishes a trust in Quasia and, when a white settler betrays that, and a little girl is killed and a boy kidnapped after the failure of the hunt, he is committed to the harsh penalties of vengeance. Obediently, loyally, his black troop follows him on his perilous, miserable, dramatic tracking of Quasia, and the trail, taking almost full toll of lives, at last frees Byrne from his mania to save his enemy. A post-Civil War panel has elements of the unexpected in its use of a three color issue and a strong story basis.