"I thought you might. Now Carla – my kid sister, remember? – has been saving up days off so she can go camping in September Canyon. You with me so far?"

"Cash, what the hell – "

"Good," Cash interrupted. "You’re still with me. Now hang on tight, cowboy, this is where you got bucked off last time. I am in Boulder. Carla is not She’s not coming here, either. She’s on her way to September Canyon."

"Alone?"

"Yes."

"For the love of God, why did you let her do a damn fool thing like that!"

"Yo, Luke!" Cash said loudly. "I think you’ve been bucked off into the fresh stuff again. Carla, my kid sister – you do remember her, don’t you?"

Luke swore.

"Yeah, I thought you did," Cash continued. "Well, she’s twenty-one. Even if I were at the ranch – which I’m not, remember? – I wouldn’t have stopped Carla. She may be my kid sister, but she’s not a kid anymore. She’s old enough to do what she wants."

Luke started to speak, but Cash wasn’t finished talking yet.

"You got that, Luke? Carla’s only a girl in our memories, and that’s not fair to her or to us. Now, are you still with me or are you sitting on your butt in a pile of road apples wondering what hit you?"

There was silence while Luke absorbed his friend’s message. "You’re a fool, Cash McQueen," he said softly.

"No. I’m a gambler, which is a different thing entirely. Even so, I’d prefer not to have Carla spending too much time alone in the kind of country she’s headed for."

"How long do you think it will take you to get your damned Jeep fixed?" Luke asked tightly.

"I’m having a part flown in from L.A. Soon as that comes I’ll be up and running."

"Cash, damn it – "

"Have a nice trip, Luke."

For a long minute Luke stared at the dead phone. Then he slammed the receiver into the cradle and went looking for his ramrod.

12

Carla’s small pickup truck bounced and slithered through one of the countless small washes that crossed the ragged dirt road. When she came to what could have been another ranch crossroad or simply one more "shortcut" leading to nowhere in particular, she stopped the truck and checked the map. Only the dashed, meandering line of the ranch road showed. No crossroads, no spurs, nothing but the single road heading generally southeast across the national forest land where the Rocking M had leased grazing rights. The tongue of national forest ended at the edge of a long line of broken cliffs that zigzagged over the countryside for mile after mile. The line of cliffs was deeply eroded by finger canyons and a few larger canyons where water flowed year-round.

One of those many creases in the countryside was September Canyon.

A swift check of the compass assured Carla that she was still heading in the right general direction. Out here, that was as good as it got; road signs simply didn’t exist. She got out of the pickup, stretched and assessed the weather. Scattered showers had been predicted for the Four Corners country, with a good chance of a real rain by sundown. At the moment clouds were sailing in fat armadas through the radiant sapphire sky. The clouds themselves ranged from brilliantly white to a brooding slate blue that spoke silently of coming rain.

The high peaks off to the north were already swathed in clouds as solitary rainstorms paid court to mountaintops rarely reached by man. To the south, cloud shadows swept over land broken by canyons and rocky ridges. Random, isolated thundershowers showed as thick columns of gray that were embedded in the earth at one end and crowned by seething white billows on the other.

Even as Carla appreciated the splendor of rainbows glittering among the racing storm cells, she was relieved to see that none of the isolated thundershowers had ganged up and settled in anywhere for a good cry. She had driven dirt roads long enough to know that she didn’t want to drive through mud if she could help it. Nor was she enthusiastic about the idea of fording washes that were hub-deep in roiling water. Fortunately it was only a few more miles to Picture Wash, and from there it was just under three miles to the mouth of September Canyon. Even if she had to walk, she would have no trouble making it before sunset.

Smiling at the excitement she felt rising in herself at the knowledge that she was finally within reach of the canyon that had haunted her for seven years, Carla got back in her little pickup and drove down the road, trailing a modest plume of dust behind.

The dust Luke raised heading for September Canyon could in no way be called modest. A great rooster tail of grit and small pebbles boiled up in the wake of his full-size pickup truck. He drove hard and fast, but never dangerously. He knew each rut, pothole and outcropping of rock in the road. Close to the ranch house he drove between barbed wire fences marking off pastures. Farther from the house he came to the open grazing land.

There was no gate to the open area. There was only a cattle guard made of parallel rows of pipes sunk into the road at a right angle. The pipes were spaced so that a cow would shy back from walking on them for fear of getting a hoof caught in the open spaces between the bars. The cattle guard offered no deterrent to vehicles beyond the startling noise caused by tires rattling and clattering over pipes.

Luke occupied his mind with the condition of the road or the look of the cattle grazing nearby or the number and kind of plants growing in roadside ditches. The road needed grading. The fences could have used tightening in a few places. The cattle were sleek and serene, grazing in good forage or lying beneath scattered trees to ruminate. The roadside plants were lush with water from a recent storm that had raced by, grooming the land with a wet, lightning-spiked tongue.

More rain threatened. Luke had outrun one thunderstorm, dodged another by taking a shortcut and had plowed through a third. The clouds overhead suggested that evasive maneuvers wouldn’t work much longer. He assessed the state of the sky with an anger he didn’t examine and pushed harder on the accelerator, picking up speed. If it kept raining off to the southwest, water would be running in Picture Wash before sunset and Carla might become isolated on the other side. There were no other roads into September Canyon. The only trail was one he had discovered seven years before, when he had been combing the Rocking M’s most distant canyons on horseback, looking for strays. In good weather the trail was harsh enough; in bad weather it would be hell.

I’lltake the trail, if it comes to that. Carla shouldn’t be out there by herself.

Why not? asked a sardonic corner of Luke’s mind. She’s safer out there alone than she is with me and I damned well know it.

Surely I can keep my hands off her until Cash gets here.

Yeah, that’s what he was gambling on, wasn’t it? And that’s why I called him a fool.

Luke’s mouth flattened into a grim line as the truck began to descend in a long series of switchbacks that would eventually lead to the lower elevations where Rocking M cattle grazed in winter and cottonwoods grew year-round, shading sand-bottom creeks with massive elegance.

Usually the creeks ran clear, as transparent as the raindrops that had spawned them. But by the time Luke reached Picture Wash, the water was a churning swath of brown. He stopped the truck, got out and guessed the height of the water over the dirt road by how much of the streamside vegetation was underwater. There was no doubt that Carla had crossed here – the narrow tires of her baby pickup had left a trail right into the water. The fact that she hadn’t bogged down proved that she had crossed earlier, before Picture Wash had filled with runoff water. The stream was double its normal volume now but still could be forded by a vehicle with four-wheel drive, good axle clearance and a skilled driver. But if Luke had been an hour later, he would have spent the night camped on the wrong side of the wash.