it to his lips so he could taste it. He rubbed it between his fingers and then between his palms and then fell deep into thought.
He stayed that way until he heard the sound of approaching horses. There was a stand of Joshua trees nearby, and he grabbed up his horse’s reins and walked him over to it. He had just secreted himself there when he saw three riders coming from the other side of the stream. He had seen John Burkett around town a few times and recognized him. The same went to Chuck Conners, Burkett’s foreman. The other man he didn’t know, but from the way he was dressed and the way he sat his horse, it wasn’t hard to peg him for an Easterner. He was probably the geologist Burkett had sent for.
Sam stood right next to his horse, keeping his hand on the animal’s nose, wanting to keep him as quiet as possible until the three men had passed. They weren’t passing, however. Instead they stopped several yards further down the stream from where he had stopped. That was good; they wouldn’t notice his horse’s tracks.
He watched as all three men dismounted. The geologist was the only one who hunkered down and examined the mud the way he had, but the man went further: he had some supplies and tools with him, and he was apparently going to run some tests.
Sam watched with great interest as the minutes passed and finally, after an hour or so, the geologist was apparently ready to leave. Sam watched the man take some samples of the mud and then all three men mounted up and rode off.
Sam walked his horse back down to the stream, over to where the geologist had been.
Suddenly, Sam was convinced that there was no gold here, but that there was something here that was almost as valuable.
He mounted up and headed back to town. He had a lot to tell his brothers.
Evan was beginning to think he’d made a mistake.
Although he knew the land almost as well as Sam, he didn’t quite know what Sam would be looking for, or where. The ranch was large enough that they could ride around all day and never run into one another.
And then, of course, you could always run into someone just by accident.
When Evan saw the three riders approaching him he recognized two of them immediately. He could have turned and rode off, but he decided to brazen it out. For one thing, the third rider didn’t look like he’d be any harm to anyone, and Evan doubted if there would be any violence.
As the three reached him they reined in.
“What are you doing here, fella?” Chuck Conners asked.
“Just riding around.”
“You’re on private property, you know.”
“I know,” Evan said, “but I’m not harming anything.”
“That don’t make no never mind, mister,” John Burkett said. “I’d advise you to ride out of here right now, hear?”
“I hear you, boy.”
John Burkett didn’t seem to like being called “boy” anymore than Jubal McCall did.
“Mister, I don’t know who you are—”
“The name’s McCall.”
“McCall?” Burkett said.
“Now I remember you,” Conners said. “You’re Evan McCall.”
“That’s right.”
“I didn’t recognize you without your fancy gambler’s suit.”
Before leaving town Evan had gone to his room to change from his dark suit into something more suitable for riding.
“What are you doing out here, McCall?”
“Just riding around, thinking back,” Evan said, feigning interest in his surroundings. “You know, bringing back some memories.”
“Look,” Burkett said, “this land may have been yours once, but now it’s mine—my father’s and mine'and you don’t belong here. I told you once and I’ll tell you again. Haul ass!”
“Your father know what a bite you have when you have Conners to back you up?”
John Burkett’s hand went for his gun, but Chuck Conner’s hand got there first, blocking the move.
“Take it easy, kid,” he said. “Remember who his brother is.”
“I’m looking at him, not his damned brother,” John Burkett said.
“I agree with the lad.”
“Get going, McCall,” Conner said, “before I see if you can take the two of us at once.”
“I’m going, young Mr. Burkett, I’m going,” Evan said, turning his horse.
“And don’t come back!”
Evan waved at the men and started off at a leisurely pace. He wanted to avoid trouble, but he didn’t want them to think they had run him off.
Although, of course, that was exactly what they had done.
Chapter Fourteen
Evan McCall returned to the Miller house before Sam did.
“Sam back yet?” he asked Jubal as he entered.
“No. Anything wrong?”
“No,” Evan said. “I finished at the courthouse early and rode out to find him. It was a bad idea.”
“What happened?”
“I ran into John Burkett, Chuck Conners, and another man I took to be the geologist.”
“Anything happen?”
“Not much,” Evan said. “We all acted tough—except for the geologist. He just sat on his horse and looked scared.”
“And you didn’t see Sam?”
“No,” Evan said. “It was a bad idea to go looking for him. He always knew the ranch better than I did.”
“He should be back soon, shouldn’t he?” Serena asked. Neither of the brothers had seen her enter from the kitchen.
“He should,” Evan agreed, “depending on what he found.”
Sam’s original intention after he left the stream was to ride back to town, but he decided to continue looking around. He figured he might find some more locations where there was black mud. He searched until early evening and found only one more place, not far from the firstone. This one was at a water hole, a small basin of water where the black mud seemed to bubble up from below. Finally, he gave up, washed the mud off his hands in another stream, and headed back toward town.
When Burkett, Conners, and Cord returned to the ranch, Cord went off to do his tests while John Burkett and Conners sought out the elder Burkett. They found him out by the corral, where he had been talking to a couple of hands. He walked away from those men to talk to his son and his foreman.
“Did Cord get what he needed?” Lincoln Burkett asked.
“I guess he did,” John said. “He poked around in the mud for an hour and then brought some back with him.”
“Good,” Lincoln Burkett said. “Before long we should know what we have. Now tell me what else happened.”
“We ran across one of the McCalls,” Conners said.
“Sam?”
“No, Evan, the gambler.”
