Frank Usher waited as Billy-Jack stooped next to Mims. He saw Billy-Jack look up, nodding his head.
'Get rid of him,' Usher said, watching now as Billy-Jack dragged Mims's body through the trees to the slope and there let go of it. The lifeless body slid down the grade, raising dust, until it disappeared into the brush far below.
Frank Usher turned and walked back to the hut.
Brennan stepped aside as he reached the low doorway. Usher saw the woman on the floor, her face buried in the crook of her arm resting on one of the saddles, her shoulders moving convulsively as she sobbed.
'What's the matter with her?' he asked.
Brennan said nothing.
'I thought we were doing her a favor,' Usher said. He walked over to her, his hand covering the butt of his revolver, and touched her arm with his booted toe. 'Woman, don't you realize what you just got out of?'
'She didn't know he did it,' Brennan said quietly.
Usher looked at him, momentarily surprised. 'No, I don't guess she would, come to think of it.' He looked down at Doretta Mims and nudged her again with his boot. 'Didn't you know that boy was selling you? This whole idea was his, to save his own skin.' Usher paused. 'He was ready to leave you again just now...when I got awful sick of him way down deep inside.'
Doretta Mims was not sobbing now, but still she did not raise her head.
Usher stared down at her. 'That was some boy you were married to, would do a thing like that.'
Looking from the woman to Frank Usher, Brennan said, almost angrily, 'What he did was wrong, but going along with it and then shooting him was all right?'
Usher glanced sharply at Brennan. 'If you can't see a difference, I'm not going to explain it to you.' He turned and walked out.
Brennan stood looking down at the woman for a few moments, then went over to the door and sat down on the floor just inside it. After a while he could hear Doretta Mims crying again. And for a long time he sat listening to her muffled sobs as he looked out at the sunlit clearing, now and again seeing one of the three outlaws.
He judged it to be about noon when Frank Usher and Billy-Jack rode out, walking their horses across the clearing, then into the trees, with Chink standing looking after them.
They're getting restless, Brennan thought. If they're going to stay here until tomorrow, they've got to be sure nobody's followed their sign. But it would take the best San Carlos tracker to pick up what little sign we made from Sasabe.
He saw Chink walking leisurely back to the lean-to. Chink looked toward the hut and stopped. He stood hip- cocked, with his thumbs in his crossed gun belts.
'How many did that make?' Brennan asked.
'What?' Chink straightened slightly.
Brennan nodded to where Mims had been shot. 'This morning.'
'That was the seventh,' Chink said.
'Were they all like that?' he asked.
'How do you mean?'
'In the back.'
'I'll tell you this: Yours will be from the front.'
'When?'
'Tomorrow before we leave. You can count on it.'
'If your boss gives you the word.'
'Don't worry about that,' Chink said. Then, 'You could make a run for it right now. It wouldn't be like just standing up gettin' it.'
'I'll wait till tomorrow,' Brennan said.
Chink shrugged and walked away.
After a few minutes Brennan realized that the hut was quiet. He turned to look at Doretta Mims. She was sitting up, staring at the opposite wall with a dazed expression.
Brennan moved to her side and sat down again. 'Mrs. Mims, I'm sorry--'
'Why didn't you tell me it was his plan?'
'It wouldn't have helped anything.'
She looked at Brennan now pleadingly. 'He could have been doing it for all of us.'
Brennan nodded. 'Sure he could.'
'But you don't believe that, do you?'
Brennan looked at her closely, at her eyes puffed from crying. 'Mrs. Mims, you know your husband better than I did.'
Her eyes lowered and she said quietly, 'I feel very foolish sitting here. Terrible things have happened in these two days, yet all I can think of is myself. All I can do is look at myself and feel very foolish.' Her eyes raised to his. 'Do you know why, Mr. Brennan? Because I know now that my husband never cared for me; because I know that he married me for his own interest.' She paused. 'I saw an innocent man killed yesterday and I can't even find the decency within me to pray for him.'
'Mrs. Mims, try and rest now.'
She shook her head wearily. 'I don't care what happens to me.'
There was a silence before Brennan said, 'When you get done feeling sorry for yourself I'll tell you something.'
Her eyes came open and she looked at him, more surprised than hurt.
'Look,' Brennan said. 'You know it and I know it--your husband married you for your money; but you're alive and he's dead and that makes the difference. You can moon about being a fool till they shoot you tomorrow, or you can start thinking about saving your skin right now. But I'll tell you this--it will take both of us working together to stay alive.'
'But he said he'd let us--'
'You think they're going to let us go after your dad brings the money? They've killed four people in less than twenty-four hours!'
'I don't care what happens to me!'
He took her shoulders and turned her toward him. 'Well, I care about me, and I'm not going to get shot in the belly tomorrow because you feel sorry for yourself.'
'But I can't help!' Doretta pleaded.
'You don't know if you can or not. We've got to keep our eyes open and we've got to think, and when the chance comes we've got to take it quick or else forget about it.' His face was close to hers and he was still gripping her shoulders. 'These men will kill. They've done it before and they have nothing to lose. They're going to kill us. That means we've got nothing to lose. Now, you think about that a while.'
He left her and went back to the door.
Brennan was called out of the hut later in the afternoon, as Usher and Billy-Jack rode in. They had shot a mule deer and Billy-Jack carried a hindquarter dangling from his saddle horn. Brennan was told to dress it down, enough for supper, and the rest to be stripped and hung up to dry.
'But you take care of the supper first,' Frank Usher said, adding that the woman wasn't in fit condition for cooking. 'I don't want burned meat just 'cause she's in a state over her husband.'
After they had eaten, Brennan took meat and coffee in to Doretta Mims.
She looked up as he offered it to her. 'I don't care for anything.'
He was momentarily angry, but it passed off and he said, 'Suit yourself.' He placed the cup and plate on the floor and went outside to finish preparing the jerky.
By the time he finished, dusk had settled over the clearing and the inside of the hut was dark as he stepped inside.
He moved to her side and his foot kicked over the tin cup. He stooped quickly, picking up the cup and plate, and even in the dimness he could see that she had eaten most of the food.
'Mr. Brennan, I'm sorry for the way I've acted.' She hesitated. 'I thought you would understand, else I'd never have told you about--about how I felt.'
'It's not a question of my understanding,' Brennan said.
