d up with a parcel of 'em an' was close 'nough to feel th' wind
when a noose swung by.

"This here Kitchell--I'm takin' Bible oath he's th' same mangy breed. Maybe
so he started out to be Reb, but that was a long time ago an' he crossed
over th' river long since. An' some of them beauties back east, they'da
lapped muddy water outta an Apache's boot tracks, did it mean savin' their
dirty hides. Sounds to me, Teodoro, like you've some plain,
straightforward thinkin' there--a mighty interestin' idea. An' maybe we're
jus' goin' to attend to th' provin' of it!"

"Not by ourselves," Drew corrected. "We have our orders."

"Sure. But there ain't no order ever given what says a man has to stand up
an' be shot at an' he don't shoot back. No, I ain't sniffin' up trouble's
hot trail like a bush hound. But neither am I goin' t' sit down an' fold
my two hands together when trouble hits as it's like to do out here."

Drew agreed with that, though he did not say so. Rennie must know the
circumstances. They would have to defend themselves if it came to a fight.
But he could hope that, if Kitchell had stocked some hidden canyons with
stolen horses, the outlaw leader had left no guards on duty thereabouts.
With Running Fox prowling ahead and with him and Anse using all the scout
tricks they had learned in war-time, they should be able to learn just how
correct Teodoro's suspicions were.

12

"See, senores, the land lies so...." Hilario Trinfan's crooked body pulled
together in a lopsided perch as he squatted range fashion beside the
morning campfire. He had smoothed a space of ground the width of his two
hands and was setting out twigs and stones to create a miniature relief
map of the countryside. "Here is the water hole to which the Pinto comes.
Above that we were--moving in from this side. To do so we crossed here." A
black-rimmed nail stabbed into the dust.

"It is then we see the tracks--five ahead--all shod horses, but not ridden,
save for one."

"Apaches could have been running them," Drew commented.

"No." Trinfan shook his head. "This far from pursuit the Apaches would not
have moved so. The Indio, he eats horseflesh. There would have been signs
of a fire. Or one of the animals cut down. These horses were being moved
with care--not pushed too hard. We trailed them on to here." Hilario
stabbed his finger into the dust again. "Then--Teodoro, now tell them what
you saw."

The younger mustanger hung over the crud