“Hold on a second,” Nick said cautiously.
Joseph looked along Nick’s line of sight and saw what had caught his attention. A single rider was thundering toward them, kicking up enough dust to make a black cloud in the early-evening shadows.
“Maybe we should have waited a bit longer before coming here,” Joseph said. “Looks like all of them aren’t settled in just yet.”
“Don’t get too riled up just yet. Let’s just wait and see what’s on his mind.” His voice was calm, but Nick still placed his hand upon the grip of his gun.
Joseph didn’t go near any of the guns he’d collected, but sat up tall in his saddle as if he could stare down whoever was approaching no matter how much distance was between them.
As the rider got closer, Nick raised his hand in a similar fashion as the wave he’d gotten from the camp. Racing by with his back hunched along his horse’s neck, the rider returned the wave and kept on riding north.
Nick shifted and watched until the only remaining trace of Bill’s horse was the echo of its steps. “All right, looks like we got someone looking out for us,” he said.
“How many men you think are in that camp?” Joseph asked grimly.
“I don’t know, which is why we’re not riding in there with guns blazing.”
Joseph snapped his head around to look at Nick. “What do you mean by that?”
“I mean, you may not care if you get killed, but I don’t particularly fancy the idea.”
They kept their horses walking toward the camp at an easy pace. Already, the other man who’d waved to them had turned and walked out of sight.
“When we get there, just follow my lead,” Nick said. “I’ll do the talking, and if you need to say something, make it short.”
“I should only speak when spoken to?” Joseph asked sarcastically.
“That’s exactly right. And don’t draw your gun unless I do it first. Do you understand me?”
“If things go bad, I’m not about to wait and—”
“If things go bad, taking one step out of line will only make them worse.”
Joseph let out a disgruntled breath and worked a kink out of his neck. “Are you going to tell me what you have in mind or should I just wait to be surprised while you talk to me like I’m a child?”
“So glad you asked,” Nick replied with a grin.
As Nick and Joseph rode into the camp, the smells of burned coffee and cigarette smoke hung in the air and drifted among the four tents that were set up in a circle around the fire. Five horses were tethered nearby, and three men sat on the ground with their legs stretched out and their backs against a log. One of them got up, dusted himself off and ambled over to Nick. “You fellas are damn lucky if you’re here about them jobs. You’re late, but we wound up staying here a bit longer. You can call me Bryce.”
Nick put on a friendly smile and shook Bryce’s hand. “We’re not exactly here about the jobs, so does that mean we’re not lucky?”
“Uh…no. What are you here for?” Bryce asked as he nervously glanced from Nick to Joseph.
“We’re here to collect the women and bring them back to San Trista,” Nick said.
“Ain’t no women here. Hasn’t been for a day or two.”
“Other camp’s having all the fun?”
Although the man nodded, he didn’t seem at all happy about it.
“There’s something else you might want to know. Fella by the name of George asked me to pass it along.”
“Let’s hear it,” Bryce said.
Ignoring the man’s request, Nick looked over Bryce’s shoulder at the fire. “You still got some of that coffee I smell?”
Raising his voice to make sure the men behind him could hear, Bryce said, “If you can smell it, I’m surprised you want it.”
One of the men still seated by the fire flipped a rude gesture over his shoulder and grunted, “Kiss my ass, Bryce.”
“If I don’t get something in my gut soon, I’m about to fall off this horse,” Nick said as he casually surveyed the camp.
“Sure. Come on over.”
Nick climbed down from his saddle and nodded toward Joseph to do the same. As he walked over to the fire, Nick counted up the men he could see as well as what kind of guns they were carrying.
“Your partner don’t have much to say,” Bryce said as he squatted down next to the fire and used a dented kettle to fill two equally dented cups.
“I’m not supposed to talk,” Joseph muttered.
Two of the other men sitting at the fire laughed at that. One of them said, “We keep telling that to Bryce, but he don’t listen.”
Bryce rolled his eyes and handed Nick and Joseph each a cup of coffee. The brew tasted every bit as bad as it smelled.
“You want some food?” Bryce asked. “I think there’s still some stew around here somewheres.”
Nick sipped the coffee and shook his head as the bitter sludge went down his throat. “Thanks, but no.”
Bryce sat down and rubbed his hands together next to the fire. “So what’s the word from Georgie?”
“There’s been some law dogs poking around, asking about stolen cattle being driven across state lines. You’re supposed to head for an old fort southeast of here.”
That caught all the men’s attention. They shifted so they could each look at Nick’s face. “What?” Bryce said.
“George and the other one in town already headed over there. He was in a rush, so he made sure I knew your signal so I could tell you where to meet up with the others.”
“The law ain’t been a concern for Dutch before,” Bryce said.
Joseph lowered his coffee cup and quickly added, “There’re Federals with this bunch. A cavalry unit meant to trap rustlers trying to slip out of Texas.”
“God dammit,” one of the other men said before he was silenced by a quick wave from Bryce.
“One of Dutch’s men was just here. How come he didn’t tell us about this?”
“Because he didn’t know about it,” Nick replied. “This is the first place we stopped.”
Bryce reflexively glanced in the direction that Bill had ridden only a few minutes ago. He then looked south toward the other camp. When he shifted his eyes back to Nick, he was nodding slowly. “What’s this fort you’re talking about?”
“It’s not far from here, but it should put you well out of that posse’s way.” As he spoke, Nick could see Bryce shifting more and more. His eyes wouldn’t stay still and he hardly looked at Nick directly.
“And you’re sure them laws don’t know about it?”
Feeling Bryce’s growing nervousness, Nick kept talking until it seemed Bryce was about to bust. “If they do, you men should be able to handle them. It is a damn fort, after all. Look, we’re just the messengers. We’re going to the other camp and tell them the same thing. We can come through here on our way back to let you know what they said, but don’t expect us to waste too much time. Those whores need to get back.”
Joseph raised his eyebrows and looked over at Nick. “They could stay here if they want, but I don’t want to meet up with all them Federals. Not if these are the boys they’re after.”
“I’ll go with you to talk to Dutch,” Bryce finally said.
Nick sipped his coffee as if he was sitting on a veranda. Keeping his cup up to his mouth, he shrugged and said, “If you want. The more I think of it, though, the more I like the idea of trading lead with that posse. Those sons of bitches killed a dozen men last time they rode through here.”
“Just a dozen?” Joseph asked. “I know more than twenty holes in the ground that were filled by them Federals.”
After listening to that, Bryce was more than anxious to leave.
Twenty minutes later, Nick and Joseph were halfway between the two camps, dragging Bryce’s unconscious body into some bushes.
“You think those men will miss our friend here?” Joseph asked.
Nick laughed and lobbed Bryce’s gun into the shadows. “Are you joking? Those men were wound so tight,
