kly for what small
guarantee of respectability the identification might give. Certainly in
his present guise he did not look Alexander Mattock's grandson.

Dandy rested his weight on his good leg and swung his shorter one a
little ahead. And his hand went to the loose front of his white shirt.

"Now that's a right unfriendly move, suh. I take it right unfriendly to
show hardware 'fore you know the paint on our faces--"

The smaller man's hand fell away from his concealed weapon, but Kirby
did not reholster the Colt which had appeared through some feat of
lightning movement in his grip.

"You're not going to take _my_ horses!" Even if there was no gun in
Dandy's hand, his voice stated a fact they could not doubt he meant.

"Nobody's takin' hosses," the Texan answered. "This heah soldier's got
him a mighty sore head, an' he needs some fixin'. We ain't too popular
round heah right now, an' he can't ride. So--"

Boyd pushed up. "Mr. Dandy, you know me--Boyd Barrett. And this _is_
Drew Rennie. We have Yankees after us. And you never said you were
Union--"

Dandy shrugged. "No matter to me what you wear ... blue ... gray--you're
all a bunch of horse thieves, like as not. You, Mr. Boyd, what you doing
riding with these here Rebs? And what's the matter with that man? Got
him a lick on the head, eh? Well--" he crossed with his lurching walk to
stand by Drew, studying the now unconscious Croxton--"all right." His
voice was angry, as if he were being pushed along a path he disliked.
"Get him into the stable. I ain't yet took sides in this here bloody
war, and I ain't going to now. But the man's hurt. Unload him and don't
tell me what he's been doing back there to get him that knock. I don't
want to know."

He led the way into the stable, and moments later Croxton was as easy as
they could make him on an improvised bed of straw and clean horse
blankets. Dandy turned to them with Croxton's gun belt swinging free in
his hand, still weighted down with two revolvers.

"You want these?"

Drew glanced at his two companions. His own carbine was gone; he had
dropped it at the verge of the millpond when he had taken charge of
Croxton. Boyd was without any weapons, and Kirby had only side arms.
Drew started to reach for the belt and then shook his head. If Sam was
able to ride soon, he would need those. And the rest of them could take
their chances at getting more arms. Boyd opened his mouth as if to
protest, but he did not say a