shouted what sounded like questions at Sam and the other two prisoners, who didn’t respond.
At any moment now, they would come searching for him, Matt thought. He drew himself deeper into the shadows behind the hogan and waited.
The angry voices split up, which was a lucky break for Matt. As weak as he was, he couldn’t have fought two men at once. He knew he’d be doing good to deal with one of the guards.
His fingers tightened on the handle of the knife as one of the men came around the hogan toward him. They probably thought he had fled, abandoning the others, and wouldn’t expect to find him lurking so close by.
The man’s footsteps thudded on the ground. Matt saw him loom up out of the darkness.
He struck without warning as the guard stepped past him, bringing down the butt end of the knife’s handle against the back of the Navajo’s head. The blow drove the man to his knees. Matt kicked him in the back and sent him sprawling. His rifle clattered on the ground.
Matt sprang forward and grabbed the weapon. A shot might rouse others along the creek, so he used the stock to knock the guard out cold.
Panting from the exertion, Matt turned from the unconscious man just in time to see the other guard charging at him from the shadows.
He still had hold of the rifle, so he thrust it out in front of him like a spear. The second Navajo’s momentum carried him into the barrel, which dug deep into his belly and doubled him over. Matt stepped forward and brought his knee up, catching the man under the chin.
The guard went down, just as unconscious as his companion.
Matt fell against the hogan. Battling the two men had taken every bit of his strength.
But he had to summon up more from somewhere, he told himself, because Sam and the two range detectives were still prisoners. With a groan, Matt pushed himself away from the hogan and started around it at a shambling run.
He emerged into the firelight and was almost at the entrance when Elizabeth Fleming ran out of the hogan and almost collided with him. She grabbed his arm to steady herself and exclaimed, “Oh!”
“Are you ... all right?” Matt asked, still breathless and dizzy.
“Yes, Josefina just untied me.”
Matt had to think for a second to remember that Josefina was the name of Juan Pablo’s wife. He had heard it used only occasionally.
From the ground nearby, Sam asked, “Matt, what happened to those two guards?”
“They’re both ... knocked out ... for now.”
“Better cut us loose while you got the chance,” Stovepipe said.
“Give me the knife,” Elizabeth suggested. “You look like you’re about to fall down, Matt.”
“Feel like it ... too.” He pressed the knife into her hands. “Be careful, but ... don’t waste any time.”
As Elizabeth took the knife and knelt beside Sam, Matt saw movement from the corner of his eye and turned to look toward the hogan’s entrance. He saw the woman emerging from the dwelling with her arms full of gunbelts and holstered revolvers.
“Son of a gun!” Matt said as he recognized his own twin Colts. “They were ... hidden in there ... the whole time!”
The woman practically dumped the weapons into his hands. He staggered a little under their weight.
When Matt turned toward the prisoners again, he saw that Elizabeth had succeeded in freeing Sam. His blood brother leaped to his feet and flexed his hands a few times to get the blood flowing in them again.
“Give me my gun,” he said as he came over to Matt.
Sam took his gunbelt and strapped it around his hips. Stovepipe was free by then, and he hurried over to retrieve his revolver as well, followed by Wilbur.
Matt felt strength flow back into him as he buckled on the pair of Colts. It might not be real—the return of his guns had buoyed his spirits, and that could account for the fresh energy—but for now he would take it.
“I’m not sure what’s goin’ on here,” he said, “but it sure does feel good to be free again.”
“You can thank Josefina for that,” Elizabeth said. She still clutched the knife, which Matt now recognized as Sam’s bowie. “It was her idea to cut you loose and to untie me.”
“Why would she betray her husband like that?” Sam asked as he took the knife from Elizabeth and slid it into the sheath attached to his gunbelt.
With a grim little smile, Elizabeth said, “It was either that or cut my throat, and don’t think she didn’t consider doing that instead.”
“But why?” Matt asked.
“She freed us so you can take me out of the canyon and get me far away from Juan Pablo.”
“Oh,” Matt said as understanding dawned on him.
“What’re you talkin’ about?” Wilbur said. “You mean—Oh, shoot!”
His face was already red in the firelight. It became more so as he flushed.
“Yes, he was going to take me as a second wife once his armed uprising succeeded. Josefina doesn’t want that. So she thought that if she turned you loose, you’d escape and take me with you.”