.

Raoul thought he recognized the two bucks at the smelter. Last fall they
had come to him as he was bossing the crew he'd put to work expanding
the mine before he shut it down for the winter. The Indians had claimed
it was their mine. He had told them to be off, and when they hadn't
moved quickly enough, he and his men had cocked their flintlocks. Should
have killed them then.

Raoul gripped the gilded butt of the cap-and-ball pistol that hung at
his waist and slid it out of its holster.

"Get them!" he called, standing up suddenly. He stretched out his arm,
sighted along the barrel of his pistol and fired at the nearer Indian
standing by the smelter.

Four rifles went off at once. Raoul was enveloped in the bitter smell of
gunpowder and a cloud of smoke. The Indian Raoul had aimed at jerked,
fell to his knees, then collapsed face forward beside the smelter. The
other one at the smelter ran for his horse and leaped on its back. They
must have all aimed at the same one, Raoul thought, cursing himself for
not thinking of pointing out targets for each man.

The third Indian had disappeared. The skin sack of galena lay beside the
mine entrance.

"Dammit," said Raoul. "If that redskin on the horse gets away there'll
be raiding parties coming here. Whoever digs here'll have to have eyes
in the back of his head."

"I'll put an eye in the back of _his_ head," said Eli as he poured
powder from his measure down the muzzle of his rifle. He grinned at
Raoul--two upper front teeth missing and one lower. Did he know about
Clarissa? Raoul still couldn't tell.

The other men were also reloading. Raoul pushed powder and shot down the
muzzle of his pistol, then took a percussion cap out of a pouch at his
belt and pressed it onto the nipple in the breach. By the time he was
ready to fire, the Indian was galloping down the riverbed and had
disappeared around a bend.

Hodge Hode, Levi Pope and Otto Wegner ran for their horses. Eli stayed
where he was, smiling down at the rifle in his hands as if he were
holding a baby.

"If we all chase after the one on horseback," Eli said, "the one that's
hiding will run off in the other direction."

"True enough," said Raoul. By this time Hodge, Levi and Otto had ridden
off.

"Another thing," Eli said. "Our boys is on the wrong side of the ravine.
When the Injun comes out, he'll come out on the south side. By the time
they ride down and in, and up and out again, he'll be a mile away."