where there was a convex slab of rock. The dead body was stripped and men cut it into pieces, tossed the parts to the large waiting vultures. Their idea was to remove all traces of humanness and let the soul return to spirit form. They watched the vultures gorge themselves on human remains, then take to the sky, flying over the hills and the mountains, carrying what was left of the human corpse. The sight gave the mourners great comfort.
Zak sighed and turned away to walk toward his horse.
Nox stood there in silence, his ears still flattened, his body braced for danger.
Then the horse’s ears pricked up and twisted as if to catch a distant sound.
Zak paid attention to such things. He stopped and listened, turning his head first one way, then the other. The sun was clearing the horizon, sliding up through murky logjams of clouds, spraying the land with a pale gold in its broad reach.
He heard the familiar click of a rifle cocking, and whirled to see an armed soldier pointing a Spencer repeating rifle straight at him.
“You just hold on there,” the soldier said.
A moment later Zak heard the scuffle of a horse’s hooves and turned his head to see another soldier, also armed with a Spencer, bearing down on him from behind a low hill.
“Better lift them hands, mister,” the first soldier said.
Zak slowly lifted his hands.
“Looks to me like we got a murder here,” the second soldier said, then turned and raised a hand, beckoning to someone Zak could not see.
The two soldiers closed in on Zak, flanking him on both sides, but kept their distance, their barrels trained on him, their fingers caressing the triggers.
The Spencer had a seven-cartridge magazine, tubular, and used .56/56 rimfire cartridges. Zak knew they could shoot him to pieces at such close range.
“This wasn’t murder, soldier,” Zak said softly. “Self-defense.”
“So you say.”
“Look at the bodies. They both have pistols next to them.”
“You just hold steady there.”
Then Colleen O’Hara rode up. She stared at the bodies of Chama and Carmen, gasped aloud. Then she saw Zak. She stopped her horse next to the second soldier.
“Mr. Cody,” she said. “Whatever happened here? Did you kill that man and that woman?”
“You know this jasper?” the first soldier asked.
“Why, yes. Slightly. Why are you pointing your guns at him?”
“It appears that Mr. Cody murdered these two people and I’m going to take him into custody.”
“Mr. Scofield, Delbert, I think you may be making a big mistake,” Colleen said. “I’m sure Mr. Cody has some reasonable explanation.”
“Yeah, what is your explanation, Cody?” the second soldier said.
“Your name?” Cody said, looking at the soldier.
“This is Hugo,” Colleen said, “Hugo Rivers. These two were escorting me to Tucson where I plan to look for my brother Ted.”
“Well, Private Rivers,” Zak said, “these two pulled pistols on me and were going to kill me. I beat them to the punch.”
“Some story,” Rivers said.
Scofield snorted. Then, he looked at Chama more closely.
“Hey, this here’s Sergeant Jimmy Chama,” Scofield explained. “He’s a damned deserter.”
River turned his head to look at Chama. “Sure as hell looks like him,” he said.
“That is Chama,” Zak said. “Miss O’Hara, he’s the one who fixed things with Ferguson and Trask so they could kidnap your brother.”
Colleen reared back in her saddle, her back stiffening.
“He is?” she said.
“That’s what he told me,” Zak said. “He was proud of it. He is a deserter, as these men say. Or was.”
“What about that woman?” Scofield asked. “She wasn’t no deserter.”
“She’s married to one of Ferguson’s men. She was my prisoner. Chama slipped her a pistol and they both meant to kill me, to stop me from trying to free Lieutenant O’Hara.”
“Well, we’ll just have to sort all this out,” Scofield said.
“No,” Zak said, dropping his hands, “you two are now under my command. Put down those rifles. We’ve got a ways to ride.”
“You ain’t got no authority to order us to do a damned thing, mister,” Rivers said.
“I think he does,” Colleen said. “I learned, at the fort, that Mr. Cody is a commissioned officer in the army, working for General Crook and President Grant. You’re a colonel, are you not, Mr. Cody?”
