period for all of us. I wanted nothing to happen to that. Friendships are not so many in this life, and we had put rough country behind us and kicked up some dust in our passing, and we had smelled a little powder smoke together and there's nothing binds men together like sweat and gunsmoke.
'You go ahead, Orrin. We'll talk to Tom tomorrow.'
I wanted to be there when it was talked out, because Tom liked me and he trusted me. He and Orrin were too near alike in some ways, and too different in others.
There was room enough for both of them, but I was quite sure that Tom would want to go first.
It took me a shade more than an hour to ride down to where we figured to start ranching. There were trees along the river there, and some good grass, and I bedded down at the mouth of the gap, in a corner among the rocks. Picketing Montana horse, I switched from boots to moccasins and scouted around, choosing the site for the house and the corrals.
The bench where the house was to be was only twenty feet above the river, but above the highest watermark. The cliff raised up behind the bench, and the location was a good one.
Peeling off my shirt, I worked through the afternoon clearing rocks and brush off the building site and pacing it off. Then I cut poles and began building a corral for our horses, for we would need that first of all. Later, when dark began to come, I bathed in the creek and putting on my clothes, built a small fire and made coffee and chewed on some jerked beef.
After I'd eaten I dug into my saddlebags for a book and settled down to read.
Time to time I'd get up and look around, or stand for a spell in the darkness away from the fire, just listening. By the time the fire was burning down I moved back from the fire and unrolled my bed. A bit of wind was blowing up and a few clouds had drifted over the stars.
Taking my rifle I went out to check on Montana horse who was close by. I shifted his picket pin a little closer and on fresh grass. There was a feel to the night that I didn't like, and I found myself wishing the boys would show up.
When I heard a sound it was faint, but Montana horse got it, too. His head came up and his ears pricked and his nostrils reached out for the smell of things.
Putting a hand on his shoulder, I said, 'All right, boy. You just take it easy.'
Somebody was out there in the night, calling to me. Now a man who goes rushing out into the night will sooner or later wind up with a bullet in his belly. Me, I circled around, scouting, and moving mighty easy. I had a sight more enemies in this country than friends.
It wasn't any time at all until I saw a standing horse, heard a low moan, and then I moved in. It was a man on the ground, and he was bad hurt.
'Senor!' the voice was faint. 'Please ... it is Miguel. I come to you ... I bring you troubles.'
So I scooped him off the ground and put him on his horse. 'You hang on,' I said.
'Only a few yards.'
'Men come to kill me, senor. It will be trouble for you.'
'I'll talk to them,' I said, 'I'll read 'em from the Scriptures.'
He passed out, but I got him to camp and unloaded him. He was shot all right.
He'd had the hell shot out of him. There was a bullet hole in his thigh and there was another high in his right chest that had gone clean through. His clothes were soaked with blood and he was all in.
There was water by the fire so I peeled back his clothes and went to work. First off, I bathed away the blood and plugged the holes to stop the bleeding. Come daylight, if he made it, I was going to have to do more.
With the tip of my bowie I slit the hide and eased a bullet out from under the skin of his back, then bathed the wound and fixed it up as best I could. I could hear riders working their way down the country, a-hunting him. Sooner or later they'd see the reflection of my fire and then I'd have to take care of that.
Moving Miguel back out of the firelight, I got him stashed away when I heard them coming, and they came with a rush.
'Hello, the fire!'
'You're talking. Speak your piece.'
'We're hunting a wounded greaser. You seen him?'
'I've seen him and he's here, but you can't have him.'
They rode up to the fire then and I stepped up to the edge of the light. Trouble was, one of those riders had a rifle and it was on me, and the range wasn't fifteen feet.
That rifle worried me. They had me sweating. A fast man on the draw can beat a man who has to think before he can fire, but that first shot better be good.
'It's Sackett. The kid they say is a gunfighter.'
'So it's Sackett,' it was a sandy-haired man with two tied-down guns like one of these here show-off gunmen, 'I ain't seen none of his graveyards.'
'You just ride on,' I said, 'Miguel is here. He stays here.'
'Talking mighty big, ain't you?' That man was Charley Smith, a big man, bearded and tough, hard to handle in a difficulty it was said. The one with the rifle was thin, angular, with a bobbing Adam's apple and a shooting look to him.
'He's wounded,' I said, 'I'll take care of him.'
'We don't want him alive,' Smith said. 'We want him dead. You give him to us and you're out of it.'
'Sorry.'
'That's all right,' Sandy said, 'I like it this way. I prefer it this way.'
That Sandy didn't worry me as much as the man with the rifle. Although the chances were that Sandy had practiced some with those guns. Even a show-off may be pretty fast, and I had that to think about.
Of one thing I was sure. There was no talking my way out of this. I could stand by and see them kill Miguel or I could fight them.
Now I'm not a smoking man myself, but Miguel's makings had fallen from his pocket and I'd picked them up, so I got them out and started to roll a smoke and while I talked I went right on building that smoke.
What I needed was an edge, and I needed it bad. There was the man with the rifle and Charley Smith and there was this Sandy lad who fancied himself with six-shooters. There might be more back in the dark but those three I had to think about.
'Miguel,' I said, and I was talking for time, 'is a good man. I like him. I wouldn't interfere in any fight of his, but on the other hand, I don't like to see a wounded man shot without a chance, either.'
Smith was the cagey one. He was looking around. I guessed Smith was worried about Orrin. He knew we were a team, and he knew there was four of us, and there might be, just might be, somebody out there in the dark.
Now I was doing some serious thinking. A man who holds a gun on somebody is all keyed up and ready to shoot when he first gets the drop on you, but after awhile his muscles get a little heavy, and his reactions will be a little slower.
Moreover, these fellows outnumbered me three to one. They had the advantage, so they just didn't think anybody would be fool enough to tackle them. That there was against them too. It sort of made them relax mentally, if you get what I mean.
Only any move I made must be timed just right and I had to slicker them into thinking of something else.
If they killed Miguel when he was wounded in my camp, I'd never feel right again ... even if I lived.
'Miguel,' Smith said, 'is one of Alvarado's men. We're running them out.'
'Where's your brother?' The man with the rifle was asking. He'd had some of his attention on the shadows out there. In his place I'd have been giving them plenty of thought.
'He's around. Those boys are never far off.'
'Only one bed.' That was Sandy shooting off his fat mouth.
'I can see it.' That was the man with the two big pistols who wanted to kill me.
He could make it sound mighty big, later. Charley Smith was going to kill me because he didn't want anybody around taking a shot at him later.
Putting that cigarette between my lips I stooped down and picked up a burning twig to light it. I lifted it to my cigarette, holding it in my fingers while I had my say.
