body around in a half circle, then starting for a nearby clump of trees.
It was there he propped the body against the narrow branches, then reached inside his shirt for a short coil of rope. Titus looped it around the dead man’s chest and tree twice, then tied it off in a knot before he pulled his knife again to cut off what rope he hadn’t used.
“Frakes!”
A voice cut the night behind him.
His senses on fire, Bass whirled in a crouch, finding the nearly full moon’s brightness already raising some light behind the ridge they had spent three days trudging to get around. In a matter of minutes that moon would poke its head over the bluff and illuminate the valley.
“Where you, Frakes?”
Concentrating on the sound of that voice, Titus spotted the dark form punching a sliver out of the starry sky as the man stomped closer and closer. Then that shadow split in two and there were suddenly four legs coming his way.
A new voice growled, “I bet that bastard’s catchin’ a nap.”
“You can whup his ass tomorrow, Jenks,” the first one said. “But we got our watch to cover, you an’ me.”
“Shit, Corrett—you buckin’ for a raise in pay from that rich man?”
“I oughtta get a good bonus from that high-toned bastard by the time we get to California,” Corrett declared. “Hargrove promised us all some good money if we took good care of that farmer an’ left him behind like he wanted.”
“Lotta good we done whipping him an’ stringing him to that tree,” Jenks grumped. “Them old skinners saved that farmer’s worthless life.”
“Maybeso like Hargrove promised, he’ll give us a chance to dance with them two skinners once we divide off at Fort Hall.”
Jenks laughed with Corrett, then said, “That farmer was big and hard, but he sure was a stupid sort.”
The other shifted the rifle across his arm and said, “The real fun’s gonna be watching them skinners bleed when we hang them both upside down in a tree like a gutted hog—”
Suddenly Jenks halted in his tracks, throwing out his arm to stop Corrett. Their leather boot soles slid on the hard ground with a crunch.
“Where the hell’s Frakes?” Jenks hissed.
“Likely he’s crawled under a tree, sleeping—”
“Shuddup!” the first voice snapped, then began to call in a loud whisper there beneath the slinky drip of moonlight just starting to creep over the divide. “Frakes!”
“I don’t like this none.”
“Something’s wrong. Bad wrong,” Jenks growled. “You got your pistol loaded?”
“Both of ’em,” Corrett responded.
Titus crouched in the dark, quickly sorting through the few options open to him. The darkness gave him an advantage in one respect, but it hampered him in another way too. Damn, if he only knew what Sweete was up to.
“Let’s go look for ’im,” Jenks’s voice demanded. “You go off that way—see if you can find that sleepy son of a bitch.”
Corrett grumbled a reply just before a whistle came drifting out of the gloom. The shrill mating call of a blue grouse. Both of the men froze and slowly turned. Titus knew, began to search the dark in the direction of that telltale sound.
“That you, Frakes?” Jenks questioned. “C’mon, dammit! You’re getting me riled.”
“Over here!”
Both of the men turned their backs on Bass, directing their attention at the direction of the distant voice.
Corrett whispered, “Coming from over there, that’s gotta be Napps. But where’s Frakes?”
“Show yourself!” Jenks ordered.
“Right here.”
“Shit, Frakes,” Corrett spewed with relief. “You didn’t answer us there—I was thinking you was—”
Jenks growled his interruption, “Who the hell are you?”
Not far ahead of him in the dark, Titus saw the two men bring their guns up in the starlight.
Jenks demanded again, “Who are you?”
“And what you doing out here on Hargrove’s ground?” Corrett joined in.
“Better clear out, sodbuster,” Jenks boomed his order. “You know the rules. Hargrove don’t like none of you around his stock.”
The reply came that much closer to Titus now. “It’s you niggers I come for.”
Corrett suddenly sounded brave, “You asking for trouble?”
“Two of you,” Sweete said, his big feet crunching on the hard ground, “only one of me. Sounds like fair odds to this here child.”
“Maybe we should shoot ’im,” Corrett boasted as Bass watched the big shadow take shape out of the gloom, congealing just beyond the two hired men.
“Yeah—maybe Hargrove gimme a nice bonus for taking care of this one.” Jenks cheered himself as he brought his rifle up at his hip.
“I didn’t bring my gun, fellas,” Shad confessed. “Won’t be a fair fight.”
“Don’t need to make it a fair fight,” Jenks warned. “Only need you dead.”
“Yeah,” Corrett chimed in. “You come out here to steal some stock from Hargrove an’ we shot you red- handed.”
“I’ll keep my gun on him, Corrett. You go bring him over here by the horses.”
The stocky man stomped right over to the big shadow, cocky as a young bull in spring. But the instant he was within an arm’s length, Shad swung out with his thick leg and knocked the rifle aside, stepping in quickly to whirl the hired man around and drag him backward by the scruff of his neck. Now Sweete had his hard arm crooked around Corrett’s throat, lifting the man onto his toes as his legs flailed.
“Drop ’im!” Jenks demanded. “Drop ’im or I’ll shoot.”
“Shoot an’ you’ll hit
Jenks moved three more steps, a little to the right. “Hell if I won’t shoot.”
“You don’t wanna do that,” Shad warned. “Your gunshot’ll bring folks down here, wanting to see what happened.”
“That’s right,” Jenks agreed. “So let him go and we’ll make this quick—”
The hired man heard Titus behind him at the last moment but didn’t get fully turned in time as that shadow ripped itself out of the darkness and struck out with the short-barreled prairie rifle he’d taken off Frakes. The man’s eyes were about as wide as his mouth at the instant the rifle butt slammed against the side of his jaw, catapulting him off his feet.
“Easy there,” Sweete whispered to Corrett as the man suddenly stopped struggling. “You be good, I won’t have to put you to sleep.”
Bass stood over Jenks, straddling the body, ready to drive the iron butt plate down into the man’s head again if he stirred. But the body remained limp, sprawled in the dust and sage.
“Damn if that weren’t a purty head-bang, Scratch.”
He whispered as he knelt beside Jenks, “Good of you to show up on time, Shadrach.”
“Why you growlin’ at me? Took me some doin’ to get my fella dragged off and tied up,” Sweete said. “Where you tie yours?”
“He’s dead,” Scratch admitted. “Wasn’t as clean as you was with yours.”
Corrett wheezed, “Y-you killed one of Hargrove’s—”
Shad squeezed down on the man’s throat even more. “I’ll gut you if you make me.”
“Bring him over here,” Titus commanded. “We’ll take ’em both across the crik, other side of the hill—”
“Why you gonna kill me?” Corrett whimpered.
“We ain’t gonna kill you,” Bass hissed. “Much as I wanna cut the heart outta ever’ one of you. Shad, let’s get
