not a
gray coat among them. One light buckskin had almost startled Drew into
rising until he caught a second and clearer look.

The leaders were through and a second wave was coming. Drew counted twenty
more horses before the first rider appeared. His face was masked against
the dust by a neckerchief drawn up to eye level. But, unlike the ordinary
range rider, he wore an army forage cap in place of the wide-brimmed hat
of the plains. As he spurred by below Drew's perch he glanced up but
seemed to have no suspicion that he was under observation.

There came more horses, and Drew stopped counting. But the gray he sought
was not among them. The shouts of the drivers were louder. And then, as
three men appeared bunched, there was a crackle of shots. Two of the
riders fell, one leaning slowly from the saddle, the other diving into the
dust. The third tried to turn but did not get his horse around before a
mule pushed into him, followed by another and another. The horse thieves
were trapped. Drew could hear the sharp snap of shots along the pass. More
than those three must have been caught in the ambush.

The mules, braying and running wild, thundered on south after the horses.
Then a saddled horse, riderless, galloped by with a second at its heels.
Confused shouting rang out, without any meaningful words. This was as much
a muddle, Drew thought, as any battle. You never saw any action except
that immediately about you--mostly you were too busy trying to keep alive
to care about incidentals. Come to think of it, this was about the first
time he had ever sat out a fight, watching it as a spectator.

The roll of firing was dying down. Anse grinned at him.

"Takes you right back, don't it now?" he asked when he could be heard.
"Th' Old Man, he's got him some of th' Gineral's idears--work good, too!"

"I didn't see Shiloh in that band." Drew stood up. "Couple of duns ... no
grays."

"Come to think of it," Anse agreed, "that's right! But lookit that bay
down there." He pointed to one of the saddled horses that had a dragging
rein caught in a dead juniper stump and was trying to pull loose. "Got th'
RR brand! Some of these must be from th' Range raid."

"Hey--down here--!" The hail broke down the pass from the north. Rennie
climbed over his rock barricade, and other men came out of cover to move
up the cut. Since no one tried to stop them, Drew and Anse went along.

"Got us two of 'em ready to talk!" Jared Nye strode to me