come back.'
'And you let him do that? Didn't anyone go with him? Or go to look for him? The house is on fire and you let a man with one good leg go off on his own?' He is angry because he knows he owes Wilson his life.
'Don't be mad at me,' Emily says. 'I couldn't stop him any more than you could. Don't think I didn't try, I owe him just as much as you do.' He can see that either the smoke is making her eyes water, or she is crying. 'He told us to go without him.'
'And leave him behind?'
'I guess he knew what he was doing. I don't want to leave without him either but he stands a better chance than anyone of getting out of this mess.'
They clamber out of the window clumsily and struggle onto the horses. Billy howls with pain as he lands on his horse and sits sobbing while the others get themselves into their saddles.
There is still gunfire to be heard on the other side of the house. Wilson must still be alive.
'We should get round to the other side of the house and get Wilson out,' Logan says, turning his horse and grabbing the reins of the fifth horse.
'No,' Emily says. 'He told us to go without him.'
'I can't ride off and leave him to burn.'
'Stop thinking about yourself for a minute will you.' Laura says angrily. 'How many more of us need to stop a bullet? Take a look at your army that you're about to use to protect your wonderful deputy. You've only got one arm, Billy is in agony and we haven't even started riding yet. I don't have a gun and Miss Nixon can't shoot straight.'
'Hey!' Emily says indignantly.
'I'm just saying it how it is Miss. We ain't no match for them, even if they are just a couple of drunks. We can't save Wilson if he can't save himself.'
He knows she is talking sense, but it makes him uncomfortable and deeply unhappy to ride away from Wilson and leave him to almost certain death. If McLaren's gang doesn't get him then the fire certainly will. But how will he feel to see Laura or Emily shot because he decided to take them back into a gunfight? And even if they do take that risk, there's no guarantee that they'd be able to get Wilson out anyway. Or that he'd want to go.
Without saying another word, he starts to walk the horses away from the burning building.
They ride in the smoke as much as they can bear, to stay out of sight. They’re unable to go much faster than a walk when Billy suffers with every movement of the horse. As they reach the trees, Logan shoos the loose horse away and the four of them pick their way through the branches and rocks and head uphill.
Logan stops to listen from time to time. He thinks he still hears gunshots from beyond the smoke, he wants to hear them. His arm is stiff and painful and there is fresh blood seeping into the bandage. They must push on. Sooner or later they will be followed and they'll need all the head start they can get.
'I don't think we can go on much longer.' Laura says.
Logan doesn't acknowledge her. He knows they have ridden for hours and that Billy may be dying because of it. Their trail will be easy to follow though and there is still some daylight left.
Later they are sat round a tiny fire. They are all cold and tired, wrapped in the blankets that they packed. Billy is lying down on his back, trying to find a way to get more comfortable where his wounds will be less painful.
Logan wonders about the wound on his arm. He pokes at the dressing in the feeble firelight. Some blood has seeped through but not much. Maybe the stitches the barber put in are still intact. Maybe it will be alright. If he can't rest it then he'll need to find a doctor. How many days will it be before they find a town?
'Do you think we got away? Did they follow us?' Laura asks, wiping Billy's brow with a cloth soaked in water from her canteen.
'I don't know. I watched our back trail all day and didn't see any sign of them but that doesn't mean they won't start following later on and catch us up. We're going pretty slowly and the four of us will be making a pretty easy trail to follow. Someone needs to keep watch in the night and we all need to have guns close by our beds just in case.'
'Will we ever be free from them?'
'I don't even really know who they all are. It's your town. Maybe you know them better than I do? For all I know they could be back at the bottom of a bottle of whisky in the saloon, forgetting it ever happened.'
'Where will we go? We can hardly go back to town.'
'You're right, we should maybe talk about where we want to go.'
Nobody speaks for some time, each lost in their own thoughts. He is thinking about San Francisco and if he will ever get there. He doesn't have the money, his belongings are still back in Walkers Creek, and his most lucrative means of employment will be closed to him if he has these three for company.
He looks at Emily and watches the light from the flames flicker across her face. She has a grim determined look. It wouldn't be so bad if it was only her. She does at least seem to have forgotten their argument about him working for Humby. She could be a good partner. She'd have the nerve to pull the kind of job he did on the McLaren house. And having a woman to travel with would be such a good disguise. No harm in having someone around to watch your back either, he thinks, remembering how the bullet through his shoulder was so nearly his end.
'What about the sheriff?' Billy says suddenly.
'The sheriff?'
'The smoke from the ranch must've been visible from Walkers Creek. Surely the sheriff and some deputies would have turned up there sooner or later. Wouldn't they be able to make it safe for us to get back into town?'
'You seem to have changed your tune on deputies.' Emily says sharply.
'I ain't such a fool not to realize that Mr. Wilson has saved our lives and all. And without us asking for him to do it neither. Oh, I know I swapped bullets with a deputy and all, and maybe he was a bad egg. But Laura tells me Mr. Tanner here was wearing a deputy badge when she first saw him and he's been pretty good for us too.'
'Aren't you worried what they'll say when they find out who you shot?'
'I see what you're saying, but right now death by hanging sounds more attractive than the pain of riding a horse 'til it kills me.'
They each look into the fire, not willing to meet Billy's eyes. None of them like to hear him talk about death.
'I'm scared of dying,' Billy says quietly, after a pause.
Still they stare into the fire.
'You know it's funny,' Billy says, 'when I was sick in bed and Laura was taking care of me, we agreed we was going to leave the ranch and run away someplace together. It's funny because here we are, running away. Sometimes that thing you wished for ain't nothing like you imagined it when you finally get it.'
Laura reaches over and kisses him on the forehead.
'I wanted that Ranch,' Emily says, a sad note in her voice. 'I wanted that Ranch so badly and then look what a mess I made of it. Now there's nothing left there, nobody else to help me run it, no house to live in. Nothing.'
'You could build a new house,' Laura says.
'No, I can't build anything without help and all my help has deserted me.'
'What about Sanchez?'
'Sanchez? I haven't seen him since the rest of them left the ranch. For all I know he could have gone with them.'
'So does anyone have someplace they'd like us to be heading for?' He asks impatiently, not being interested in who Sanchez is or where he might be.
Nobody answers. How long is he going to be able to put up with this bunch of self-absorbed depressives? Perhaps he should offer to take the first watch and then just slip off and leave them behind.
'Where do you want to go?' Emily says. 'You've had a lot of time since we left the house to think about it. I reckon you're the kind of man who always has a plan. What's your plan?'
'I'm thinking I'm going to need a doctor to see about this wound. I don't reckon that Walkers Creek will be pleased to see me back, so I'm thinking of the little mining camp I passed through on the way here. We should be able to get there in a day or so, even keeping off the road.'
