The shout of discovery was cut off in mid-cry when Wolfe opened up with Caleb’s rifle, raking the camp with bullets. Caleb threw himself over Willow, protecting her in the only way he could. Fifty feet up the ravine, Reno began firing his six-gun. The bullets came so rapidly it was hard to separate the sound of each shot. Other shots came from the camp, pistols and rifles all mixed together in an unholy barrage.

Flattened against the earth, frightened, barely able to breathe, Willow felt Caleb’s big body jerk and heard him curse. More shouts came, more gunfire, bullets whining and thudding into the ground nearby, but she could see nothing, for Caleb covered her completely.

Abruptly, Reno’s six-gun fell silent. The repeating rifle didn’t. It continued to lay down a withering hail of bullets.

«Run for it!» Reno shouted.

The words had barely registered on Willow when Caleb yanked her upright and half-carried, half-dragged her toward the rocks. Reno was crouched to one side of the shallow gully, slamming a second, fully loaded cylinder into his revolver. Willow and Caleb hurtled past Reno as the repeating rifle finally fell silent.

Immediately, Reno opened fire once more, giving Wolfe time to reload. This time the shots came more slowly as Reno coolly picked off men who were foolish enough to stick up their heads to see what was happening. The range was extreme for a handgun, but Reno was extremely good with the weapon.

«Up that ravine,» Caleb said curtly to Willow as he stood behind her and pointed her toward a dry watercourse that angled away from the ridge where Wolfe was. «When you reach the trees, go about a hundred feet, then get behind some cover and stay there until we catch up. Nowrun.»

Willow scrambled forward just as the repeating rifle began firing once more. Caleb waited to see if she would keep going as directed. To his surprise, she did. He turned and started giving terse orders to Reno.

«I’ll keep them down while you reload,» Caleb said, «but you damn well better be able to do it on the run.»

«You’re wounded,» Reno said without looking away from the camp. «I’ll stay.»

«It’s not my shooting arm. Get going.»

Reno spotted a man’s boot poking out from among the supplies in the camp. «All right. Get ready.»

While Caleb drew his six-gun, Reno sighted on the nearly hidden boot. He squeezed off his last shot, turned, and began shucking spent cases from his six-gun as he ran up the ravine after Willow.

Caleb had already chosen his target. As soon as Reno turned toward the ravine, Caleb opened fire. The bullet sent one of Slater’s men scrambling for a better hiding spot. From the far side of the camp, someone opened up on them with a rifle. The rapid barking of the shots told Caleb it was a repeating rifle. Bullets whined and sang off the rock just below him. Instantly, return fire came from Wolfe’s position, forcing the other rifleman to keep his head down.

Another rifle opened up. It, too, was a repeating rifle. Caleb squeezed off two more shots and counted the times the other rifles fired without pausing. Eight for one, nine for the other. They weren’t the same model or kind as his own rifle, which meant Slater’s men carried less in the magazine and were much slower to reload.

«Ready!» called Reno.

Caleb turned and ran as fast as he could up the ravine. He didn’t bother trying to reload while he went, for his left hand was slippery with blood. He passed Reno, went on another hundred feet, reloaded, and yelled at Reno to withdraw. Working together smoothly, both retreated into the cover of the trees.

Willow was nowhere in sight.

«Find her and get her over the rise,» Caleb said curtly to Reno. «It opens out on the other side. Wolfe will be able to bring the horses right to you.»

«What about you?»

«I’ll cover yourbacktrail until you get Willow over the rise. Now move!»

There was no time to waste arguing and Reno knew it. They had taken Slater by surprise. That advantage was rapidly evaporating. Slater’s repeating rifles weren’t as good as the one Wolfe was using, but there were two rifles against one. There were also ten men, minus the two guards and whatever Wolfe had done in the way of damage.

However Reno added it up, the advantage was on Slater’s side.

Reno turned and raced into the trees, calling softly to his sister. Willow stood up a hundred feet ahead of him. He ran to her and hustled her up the ravine much as Caleb had — half-dragging and half-carrying her. By the time they reached its head and climbed out into an area of mixed grass and trees, she was breathing as hard as she had going over the Great Divide. Reno was breathing almost as hard.

«Stand with your back to me and keep your eyes open,» Reno ordered.

Fighting for breath, Willow watched uneasily, her glance darting from shadow to shadow. Nothing was visible but clumps of aspen and patches of grass, the forerunners of the basin that lapped at the forested peaks. Gradually her breathing slowed. Time crawled while she strained to separate natural sounds from those that might be made by men sneaking up on her. In the distance she heard rifle fire, but no six-guns.

Finally a wolf’s harmonic cry floated up from behind Willow.

«Don’t shoot!» she said urgently. «It’s Caleb!»

«I never shoot at anything I can’t see,» Reno said calmly. «Come on in, Yuma man. Willy, watch the damned meadow!»

Hastily, she turned around and looked at the empty land, feeling her brother’s back like a wall behind her.

It’s just as well, Willow told herself unhappily. I don’t really want to see Caleb look at me with those cold yellow eyes and know that duty made him risk his life for me.

The thought of how exposed he had been coming into camp chilled her. She hadn’t even had time to thank him but that, too, was just as well. From the look in his eyes back at the valley, he didn’t want anything at all from her.

Let me know when you feel like being treated like my woman. Then I’ll let you know if I still feel like being your man.

«Anyone coming?» Reno asked.

«No,» Caleb and Willow said simultaneously.

«Good. How do you feel about blood, Willy? Does it make you faint?»

«Not since I turned thirteen.»

«Then switch places and go to work patching up your future husband while I watch the meadow.»

For an instant, Willow didn’t understand. When she did, she spun around and stared at Caleb, who was standing less than two feet away from her. The breath rushed out of her with a low sound as she saw blood spreading in a ragged, crimson sleeve down his left arm.

«Caleb, my God…» she said shakily.

«Don’t faint, southern lady. You’re no use to me passed out on the ground.»

The clipped words restored Willow’s control as nothing else could have. She stepped forward and looked at his arm, for it was preferable to the savage clarity of his eyes.

«Here,» Caleb said. He reached behind his back, where he had moved his knife sheath to make crawling easier. «You’ll need this.»

With a hand that trembled, Willow took the big knife. When she saw the blood on it, she looked up quickly at Caleb, wondering if he had another wound she couldn’t see.

«Not my blood,» Caleb said.

Willow drew a deep breath and said nothing.

«Disappointed?» he asked sardonically.

She flinched subtly, then took a firm grasp on the knife and put the tip of the blade beneath his cuff. «Hold still.»

«Don’t worry, southern lady. I’m not going to give you an excuse to cut me up any worse than I already am.»

The fabric gave way easily before the lethally sharp knife. Willow peeled the sleeve aside to reveal the wound high on Caleb’s arm. Her teeth sank into her lower lip as she saw the crimson stripe where a bullet had gouged a furrow across his bicep.