41

WE SAT OUR HORSES with Pony Flores behind Red Castle Rock. Chauncey Teagarden was with us. Pony raised his hand and then put his finger on his lips. The horses stood quietly. There was no wind. We listened.

Then Virgil said, “Callico.”

Pony nodded. The sound was very faint. A low murmur of hoofbeats. Virgil scanned the horizon.

Then he said, “From the northeast.”

And there it was, a faint drift of dust, kicked up by the faint beat of hooves.

“Kah-to-nay leave big trail toward river,” Pony said.

“Over there.”

We looked west, where, in the distance, the river ran straight north to south in the deep trench it had dug itself.

“Square Stone River,” I said. “Hard river to get across. Deep, ten-foot banks straight up and down.”

“Kah-to-nay lead them to ford,” Pony said.

“And across?” Virgil said.

“Sí.”

Virgil nodded to himself. There were things Virgil didn’t get. But none of them had to do with his profession. And the things he did get, he got right away.

“Everett,” Virgil said. “You done a lotta Indian fighting when you was soldierin’.”

“I did.”

“You know the ford?”

“I do,” I said.

“How many men would it take to hold the ford?” Virgil said.

Pony smiled. I thought about the ford for a bit.

Then I said, “Depends how bad the enemy wants to cross, but probably ’bout four with Winchesters.”

“So,” Virgil said. “Kah-to-nay makes it look like he and his men crossed. Which they didn’t. Callico goes hell for leather across the ford, ’cause he don’t want to get caught in the water. Kah-to-nay puts, say, four riflemen in the rocks to hold the ford and takes the rest of his bucks hell-bent for Appaloosa. Where the only gun in town is the derringer Pony gave Laurel.”

Teagarden looked at Pony.

“That right?” he said.

Pony smiled.

“Sí,” he said.

“Smart Indian,” Teagarden said.

“Younger brother,” Pony said.

“That how he learned stuff like this?” Teagarden said.

“Sí,” Pony said.

“He tell you he was gonna do this?” Teagarden said.

“No,” Pony said.

“But you know,” Teagarden said.

“Sí.”

“Because that’s what you’d do,” he said.

Pony nodded.

“What I would do,” Pony said.

Teagarden looked silently at Pony for a moment.

“Me, too,” he said.

We sat and watched the barely discernible dust cloud move ahead of the barely audible sound of the horses.

Then I said, “Time to head back to Appaloosa?”

“I believe it is,” Virgil said, and turned his horse northeast.

42

WE PUT Allie and Laurel in the Boston House, on the second floor in front.

“Lock the door, stay inside,” Virgil said, “until me or Everett tells you to come out.”

“Do you think they’ll come soon?” Allie said.

“Yes,” Virgil said. “You got a gun?”

“Yes.”

“Laurel, too,” Virgil said.

“The one Pony gave her. She always has it,” Allie said.

Laurel took the derringer out of her skirt pocket and showed it to Virgil. He nodded. She stepped close to him and whispered. Teagarden and I stood at the front windows, looking down.

“Pony’s on watch,” Virgil said.

Laurel nodded. Her face was pale and very tight. She swallowed hard. And her movements were stiff.

“Ain’t gonna let them near you,” Virgil said.

Laurel nodded stiffly.

“Somehow they get in here,” Virgil said quietly to Allie, “you know what to do.”

Allie nodded.

“How many will come?” she said.

“Pony says between fifteen and twenty.”

“And there’s only four of you,” Allie said.

“More like three and a half,” Virgil said. “Pony said he won’t shoot no Indians.”

“How can you stop them?” Allie said.

Virgil smiled faintly.

“We shoot very good,” he said.

He was wearing his Colt, and a second one stuck in his belt. He carried a Winchester and two bandoliers of.45 ammo. The ammo fit the Winchester and both Colts. I had two Colts and the eight-gauge, and ammo. Chauncey wore a two-holster gun belt with matching ivory-handled Colts. There were bullets in the loops on the gun belt. He had a Winchester, too, and extra ammo in a pigskin satchel.

“Pony’s coming,” I said.

“How fast?”

“Easy trot,” I said.

Virgil nodded toward the door, and Teagarden and I started out.

“We’ll be back for you,” Virgil said to the women.

Allie looked nearly as pale as Laurel did.

“Can’t you stay with us?”

“Don’t want to draw fire or attention,” Virgil said. “We’ll be back.”

“I pray that you are,” she said.

Laurel stood stone still and watched us as we started out the door.

“Lock it behind us,” Virgil said.

“Come back for us,” Allie said.

Her voice sounded scratchy.

“Always have,” Virgil said.

43

WE WERE STANDING in the empty street when Pony arrived. Most of the town still believed that Callico’s heroic posse would banish the red heathen. But they were staying inside anyway.

“Maybe forty minutes,” Pony said as he slid off his horse. “Kha-to-nay, and eighteen warrior.”

Virgil nodded.

“Callico on the other side of the river?”

Pony nodded.

“Three warrior with Winchesters on this side,” Pony said.

“Only way to get across would be to put the whole posse into the ford at once,” I said.

“Lose half of them,” Chauncey said. “If you do.”

“Callico won’t have much luck getting them to take that kind of casualties,” I said.

“’Specially now that they ain’t drunk,” Chauncey said.

Virgil was looking at the street.

“Where they gonna come in?” he said to Pony.

“Kah-to-nay ride straight in down Main Street. Make him feel good. He think no guns here.”

“Damn near right,” Virgil said. “You sure ’bout this?”

“What Pony would do,” he said.

Virgil nodded.

“Everett, take that fucking siege gun up onto the second-floor balcony above the bank,” he said.

“Teagarden,” Virgil said. “In the hayloft over the livery stable. Try to seem like several people.”

“I always seem like several people,” Teagarden said.

“You gonna fight?” Virgil said to Pony.

“Not kill Chiricahua,” Pony said. “Where Chiquita?”

“In the Boston House,” Virgil said. “Upstairs front. With Allie.”

Pony nodded.

“Not draw attention,” he said.

Virgil nodded.

“You and me,” he said. “Front of the pool room across the street. Behind the water trough.”

He looked at all of us.

“Let them come in. I’ll stop them here, between Everett and Teagarden. Wait for me to shoot.”

Teagarden and I both nodded and headed off for where Virgil had told us to be. Chauncey Teagarden had probably been brought to town to kill Virgil Cole. And might still be planning to try. But right now he obeyed Virgil’s orders without question, just like everybody always did.

I set up behind the railing of the upstairs porch, made sure all the weapons were loaded, laid a bandolier of ammunition out on the floor, and waited.