. A torn
shirt sleeve flapped about his left arm, allowing sight of a neckerchief
knotted about his forearm. His coat trailed from one shoulder. "What in
the world happened to you?"

Anse sat down suddenly on one of the boulders, his gaze on Drew. He shook
his head slowly.

"I ain't sein' things," he said. "That's you, ain't it? Say--got any
water?" His tongue curled over cracked lips.

Drew snatched the canteen from his saddle and hurried forward. More than a
bloodstained bandage marked Anse, he could see now. He waited while the
other seized the canteen avidly and drank. Then the Texan was smiling at
him.

"Seems as how we's always meetin' up, don't it now? Likewise it's always
to m' benefit, too. Only this time I've got me somethin' to trade. You
keep on goin' down this trail, _compadre_, an' maybe you'll wind up with a
spade pattin' you down nice an' smooth."

"What happened?"

Anse drank again with the discipline of a plains rider, a mouthful at a
time.

"What didn't would be more like it, _amigo_. Yesterday, well, they got m'
hoss--tried to git me. Only left their mark, though," Anse said, regarding
his arm ruefully. "I've been wearin' off boot heels hoofin' it ever since.
Tryin' to make it back to that there water hole."

"Who shot your horse?"

"I didn't see no name printed big 'cross his jacket, but I'm thinkin' it
was Shannon."

"You were in Mexico?"

Anse shook his head. "No, an' Shannon ain't there, neither. I trailed
along--ridin' th' high lines careful--when he went with that there Mex
_Coronel_ an' his men. Stayed with him 'bout a day, Shannon did. Then
another man, Anglo, rode into their camp--had him a chin fest with Shannon,
an' Johnny saddled up pronto, beat it with th' stranger. Thought he might
be headin' home, but he weren't. So I kept on ridin' into their dust an'
waitin' to find out what it was all 'bout.

"Shannon an' this hombre, they hit it up a pretty good lick till they got
well away from th' Sonora trail. Then they skimmed it down till you'd
think they had all month an' a handful of extra Sundays to git wherever
they was goin'. Plumb wore me down amblin' 'long th' way they did. I sure
'nough 'bout scraped off my hoss's hoofs cuttin' down his speed.

"Spent a whole day jus' loungin' 'round in one camp. I'd say they was
waitin' for someone--only nobody ever showed. So they went on, me
followin'. I'll tell you one thing. This new hombre Shannon took up with,
he was a real har