y uniforms.
The men of the Stronghold poured out to take the horses, helping down more
than one blood-stained soldier. Their leader, a slender man with dusty
gold lace banding his high collar, came directly to Rennie.

"_Don_ Cazar." His Spanish was a flood in which Drew was lost almost
immediately, but Anse listened with parted lips and then translated a
quick account.

"This here's th' _Coronel_. He an' his men was bushwhacked. Got away
'cause they met th' wagon train goin' south an' whoever was eatin' their
dust huntin' them didn't seem to like the odds. Not Apaches, probably
_bandidos_----"

"Kitchell?" Drew asked.

"My guess is they ain't sure. Got hit quick an' had to stampede to save
their skins."

Oliveri's men were taken in and Drew saw Rennie himself going from one of
the wounded to another, applying bandages and once probing skillfully for
a bullet. Drew commented on that, and Nye answered:

"Old Man knows what's he's doin'. He ain't no real doc, of course, but was
I totin' me a hunka lead in some serious part, I'd rather have him diggin'
for it than a lotta docs I've seen out here. Heard tell as how once he was
plannin' to be a real doc hisself. He sure can take care of a fella good.
What I'd like to know is how them bushwhackers knew jus' where to lay down
an' wait for Oliveri."

"What do you mean?"

"This here _Coronel_, he was comin' to buy hosses an' so he was carryin'
money or else somethin' as could pass for money. We all knowed he was
comin'. But we didn't know when or what road, an' he wasn't tellin' that
his side of th' border neither. Only some jasper had such a good idea as
to that what an' where, he an' some _amigos_ was squattin' back of rocks
jus' waitin' for th' _Coronel_ to ride into their little pocket of fire."

"Mexicans could have trailed them up, cut ahead and waited----"

"Sure. Only this operation was too slick for most _bandidos_. They don't
go in for timed, planned things; they jus' cut loose when they see a
chance. This was different. Only Fenner an' some of the train guards
ridin' in spoiled their game."

"Kitchell then?"

"Sounds more like. Don't think Kitchell's some common ridge-ridin' bad
man. He'd never've lasted this long was that so--not with th' Old Man an'
th' army an' what law there is in th' territory all gunnin' for him. Plans
things, Kitchell does, an' so far his plannin' has always paid off.

"There's something else true now, too. Was Kitchell plannin'