'What are you doin', Cletus?' Ned asked.
Cletus didn't answer until he closed the door. 'I may not wait for him to come to us.'
'What?' Victor seemed surprised.
'I may go after him myself.'
'That'd be plumb crazy,' Buster said. 'He's just waitin' up there on that rim for one of us to try it.'
'Wait until it gets light,' Ned suggested. 'That way, you can see his tracks.'
'I ain't much on waitin',' Cletus replied, 'not when I'm owed ten thousand dollars.'
'But you won't know where to look,' Ned said.
Cletus shook his head. 'When you're huntin' a man, it's easy to know where to look.'
Victor shrugged. 'Suit yourself on it, Cletus, only be sure to bring us our part of the money if you find him.'
'Are you sayin' I'd double-cross you, Vic?'
'No. Didn't mean that at all.'
Ned went to the door and peered out. 'It's stopped snowin', looks like. A man would be easier to find now.'
Buster shuffled off to a corner of the fireplace. 'You'd best have eyes in the back of your head,' he said. 'Morgan, or whoever it was, can see like a cat at night.'
'I was born with eyes in the back of my head,' Cletus said quietly, shouldering into his mackinaw. 'That's how come I'm still alive.'
'You want us to send some of the boys with you, Cletus?' Victor asked.
'Hell, no. They'd only be in the way.'
'Find out where Morgan's hidin',' Ned suggested. 'Then come get the rest of us an' we'll kill him an' sack up all that damn money.'
Cletus picked up his rifle. 'I'll let you know if I find him.'
'And the money,' Victor said, glancing at the Browning boy tied to a chair.
Cletus moved to the door and prepared to go outside. 'One thing don't figure,' he said thoughtfully.
'What's that?' Ned asked.
'If Morgan brought all that money up here to get his son back, then how come he ain't just sent word to you that he's ready to pay?'
Ned and Victor gave each other questioning looks. Ned spoke first. 'We ain't set eyes on him yet.'
Cletus wasn't convinced. 'It don't sound to me like he intends to pay that ransom at all.'
'Then why the hell is he here?' Victor asked.
'To kill every last one of you,' Cletus replied, opening the door carefully. 'By the way he's been actin' since I got here, it don't appear he's in no money-payin' mood.'
--------
*Twenty-five*
Buck came back to the cabin an hour before dawn. He came through the door soundlessly while Frank was drinking another cup of whiskey and bark tea. Karen sat near him in a hide-bottom chair.
'I got two of 'em,' Buck said, leaning his buffalo gun in a corner. 'They was followin' the smell of our smoke from this here fireplace.'
'Two?' Frank asked, clearing his head to hear what the old man had to say.
'One of 'em got away. It was hard to see in that forest down yonder, but I don't figure it'll be long before more of 'em start looking' for us up here.'
Frank tossed the wool blanket off his shoulders, flexing his bad arm. 'Hand me my shirt, Karen,' he said. 'I think I can pull on my boots.'
'You ain't strong enough, Morgan,' Buck said.
'I reckon I'm about to find out.'
'Don't do it, Frank,' Karen pleaded.
'I've got no choice. Pine and Vanbergen know I'm here and they're sending men after me now.'
Steadying himself, he put his cup of tea and whiskey on the dirt floor and pushed himself upright. 'Hand me my shirt,' he said again.
'I can handle 'em, if they don't come all at once,' Buck said.
'It's not your responsibility ... it's mine,' Frank said, taking the flannel shirt Karen offered him. 'It's me they want, and the ransom money they think I'm carrying.'
'You didn't bring any ransom money, did you?' Karen asked him.
He shook his head. 'Nope. Just a load of lead for what they've done. I intend to pay them in heavy metal, but not the kind they're expecting.'
