tration.

"We got a far piece to travel," commented the stranger. "An' I guess
I'll string along with you, 'less, of course, this heah is a closed game
an' you ain't sellin' any chips 'cross the table. Me, I'm up from Texas
way--Anson ... Anse Kirby, if you want a brand for the tally book. An'
most all a Yankee's good for anyway is to be shucked of his boots." He
freed one foot momentarily from the stirrup and surveyed a piece of very
new and shiny footware with open admiration. It was provided with a
highly ornate silver spur, not military issue but Mexican work, Drew
guessed.

"You from Gano's Company?" the scout asked.

Kirby nodded. "Nowadays, but it was Terry's Rangers 'fore I stopped me a
saber with this heah tough old head of mine an' was removed for a
while. That Yankee almost fixed me so m' own folks wouldn't know me from
a fresh-skinned buffala--not that I got me any folks any more." He
grinned and that expression was a baring of teeth like a wolf's
uninhibited snarl. "You one of Quirk's rough-string scout boys, ain't
you? We sure raised hell an' put a chunk under it back theah. Them
Yankees are gonna be as techy as teased rattlers. An' I don't see as how
we can belly through the brush with this heah hombre. He's got him a
middle full of guts to stick it this far. Long 'bout now he must have
him a horse-size headache...."

Croxton swayed and only Drew's crowding their horses together kept the
now unconscious scout from falling into the road dust. Kirby steadied
the limp body from the other side.

"Keep pullin' him 'round this way, amigo, an' he'll be planted
permanent, all neat an' pretty with a board up at his head."

"There's a house--back there." Boyd pointed to the right, where a narrow
lane angled away from their road, a small house to be seen at its end.

Drew, Croxton's weight resting against his shoulder, studied the house.
The distant crackle of carbine fire rippled across the fields and came
as a rumble of warning. It was plain that Croxton could not ride on, not
at the pace they would have to maintain in order to outdistance pursuit;
nor could he be left to shift for himself. To visit the house might be
putting them straight into some Yankee's pocket, but it was the only
solution open now.

"Hey, those mules!" Boyd had already ventured several horse lengths down
the lane. Now he jerked a forefinger at two animals, heads up, ears
pointed suspiciously forward, that were approaching the fence