'Take my suit off.'
'If you're not a kin of hers,' Albie said, 'you better be careful how you talk.'
'Just take it off,' Brady said.
He looked up, glancing again at the girl as she called, 'There's somebody coming.'
He was aware of the faint hoofbeat sound then, far off, but clear in the open stillness; and already halfway across the meadow, coming toward them from the pinyon slope that was perhaps four hundred yards away but seemed closer, he saw two riders. Directly behind them in the distance, the wagon trail was a thin sand colored line coming down out of the dark mass of pinyon. They had descended that road, Brady judged, the same way he had come not an hour before.
Albie was on his elbow, turned now and watched them approach. Brady saw the grin forming on his mouth as they drew closer and again he glanced at the girl. 'Who are they?'
She stood motionless, one hand shading her eyes from the sun glare. A breeze moved the fullness of her skirt and her hand dropped to hold the bleached cotton material against her leg.
'I'm not sure,' she answered.
'He knows them,' Brady said.
She studied them intently before her expression changed. 'Yes . . . the one on the left, he was with Albie the first time.'
'Russ,' Albie said, pushing himself up to a sitting position. 'Russ is my ma and the other one's my pa.' He laughed then and called out, 'Hey, Ma, this boy's pickin' on me!' He came to one knee as the riders came out of the aspen stand, reining their horses to a walk.
The one called Russ, slouched easily in the saddle but with a Winchester across his lap said, 'Albie, you're never going to learn.'
Albie came to his feet, brushing the seat of his pants. He was grinning and said, 'Learn what, Ma?'
'That boy's about to take his suit back.'
'Like hell he is,' Albie said.
Brady stepped toward him as he spoke and as Albie glanced around, Brady's left hand slammed into his face. Brady was on him as he went down, pressing his knee into his stomach, and when he rose he was holding the Colt Albie had been wearing. He saw that it was his own.
'I told you,' Russ said.
Brady looked up at the two riders. 'Either of you object?'
Russ shook his head. 'Not us. It's your suit, I guess you can take it if you want.'
'My Winchester, too,' Brady said.
Chapter Four
Private Business
Russ hesitated. His right hand was through the lever and the barrel pointed just off from Brady.
The second rider, who was bearded and wore a low crowned, stiff brimmed hat, held his hands one over the other on the saddle horn.
He said, 'Russell, give Mr. Brady his piece.' He spoke without straining to be heard and now his eyes moved from Brady who was studying him curiously as he moved toward Russ to take the extended Winchester to the girl and one hand lifted easily to touch his hat brim.
'You must be Kitty I've heard so much about.'
And as she nodded he said, 'Has Albie been a botheration to you, Miss Glennan?'
'I have to tell you that he has,' the girl said seriously. 'And being his father, you should know about the things he's been doing ' The bearded man's palm raised to interrupt her.
'No, ma'am, I'll admit I took Albie in and treated him as blood kin, but there's no relationship between us.' His eyes went to Brady then returned.
'Ask Mr. Brady there, he'll tell you who I am.
Though he knows me by a part of my life I've been struggling to forget.'
Studying the bearded man, Brady frowned.
'We've met before?'
'Bless your heart,' the bearded man said. 'It's a good feeling to know you can outlive the remembrance of past sins.' He touched his hand to his hat brim again, looking at the girl. 'My name is Edward Moak, ma'am, once a desperate outlaw, thieving and living off monies that were never rightfully mine, but never killing anybody you understand, until the day five years and five months ago I ran into this same Mr. Steve Brady and he ended my evil ways with one barrel load of his scattergun.' He looked at Brady. 'Am I in the recollection of your past now, Mr. Brady?'
'On the Sweet Mary to Globe run,' Brady said, studying Edward Moak, picturing him as he had been: heavier, and with only a mustache. 'You've changed some.'
'Yuma will do that to a man,' Edward Moak said.
'Cutting cell blocks out of solid rock will change a man physically, and it can cleanse him spiritually if he'll let it.' His eyes went to the girl. 'Which I did, Miss Glennan. I let it. The evil oozed out of my skin in honest labor and I felt newly baptized and born again in the bath of my own perspiration.'
'Amen,' Albie said. He was standing now. He had taken off Brady's coat and cartridge belt and now he stepped out of the pants and let them fall in the dust.
'You see,' Moak said. 'Albie's smart alecky because he was raised in bad company and hasn't learned a sense of proper values. That's why I've taken up guiding him, so he'll profit by my experiences and not have to learn the Yuma way.' Moak's eyes dropped to his hands on the saddle horn. 'It's an easy road for some people, Miss Glennan; but others have to fight the devil every step of the way.'
He looked up then. 'Say, are your folks here, Miss Glennan? Albie's told me about them and I'd be proud to make their acquaintance.'
The girl shook her head. 'They won't be back until tomorrow.'
'That's a shame,' Moak said. 'Well, maybe some other time.' He looked at Brady then. 'I almost forgot, I still have something of yours.' He stepped out of the saddle and walked around the two horses toward Brady, his legs moving swiftly in high boots. He wore a Colt on his right hip and as his hand moved to his inside coat pocket there was a glimpse of leather, a shoulder holster under his left arm. Brady saw it; but now his eyes were on Edward Moak's face, trying to read something there, but seeing only an easy grin in the shorttrimmed beard.
'You've changed some yourself,' Moak said.
'Grown taller and filled out. You know I didn't get much of a look at you at the holdup.' His grin broadened. 'All I saw was that scattergun swingin' on me and then my whole left arm hurting like fire and next thing I was on the ground.'
He held the arm up stiffly. 'Can only bend her about six inches, but I say that's little enough to pay for learning the way of righteousness.
'But I got a good look at you at the trial,' Moak went on. 'Remember, we were on facing sides of those two tables, only you on the right side and me on the wrong. Yes, sir, I got a good look at you that day. Heard you testify, heard you swear your name to be Stephen J. Brady Then, not an hour ago, Russell hands me a billfold taken out of the wildness of Albie's youth, and the first thing I see when I open it is the name Stephen J. Brady.' Moak shook his head. 'I swear for all the country it's a small damn world.'
'So it was in your mind to return the billfold,'
Brady prompted.
'To right a wrong,' Moak agreed solemnly.
'Though I didn't suspect I'd find you this easy. I figured to pick up young Albie here then go on toward Rock of Ages on the hunch you'd gone that way.'
'Just a hunch?' asked Brady.
'Well,' said Moak, 'I couldn't help reading in your billfold you're a line superintendent which is a fine thing going from shotgun messenger to line super in just five years and five months so I felt you'd go there, Rock of Ages
