"It's old Wilbarger," Dan said. "He's just got two hands with him."

"Why, I've heard of him," Jake said. "We returned some of his horses to him, out of Mexico. Pedro Flores had them. I never met Wilbarger myself."

"I've met him, the son of a bitch," Dan said. "I rode for him once."

"Where's he goin' with them horses, back to Texas?" Roy asked.

"He's probably sold his lead herd in Dodge and has got another bunch or two headed for Denver. He's taking his boys some fresh mounts."

Wilbarger and his horses were soon out of sight, but Dan Suggs made no move to resume the trip to Dodge.

"I guess Dan's feeling bloody," Roy said, observing his brother.

"I thought Wilbarger was rough," little Eddie said.

"He is, but so am I," Dan Suggs said. "I never liked the man. I see no reason why we shouldn't have them horses."

Roy Suggs was not greatly pleased by his brother's behavior. "Have 'em and do what with 'em?" he asked. "We can't sell 'em in Dodge if Wilbarger's just been there."

"Dodge ain't the only town in Kansas," Dan said. "We can sell 'em in Abilene."

With no further discussion, he turned and rode southwest at a slow trot. His brothers followed. Jake sat for a moment, his lucky feeling gone and a sense of dread in its place. He thought maybe the Suggs brothers would forget him and he could ride on to Dodge, but then he saw Frog Lip looking at him. The black man was impassive.

"You coming?" he asked-the first time on the whole trip that he had spoken to Jake directly. There was an insolence in his voice that caused Jake to flare up for a moment despite himself.

"I guess if you watch you'll find out," Jake said, bitter that the man would address him so.

Frog Lip just looked at him, neither smiling nor frowning. The insolence of the look was so great that for a moment Jake contemplated gunplay. He wanted to shoot the look off the black man's face. But instead he touched his horse lightly with the spurs and followed the Suggs brothers across the plain. He felt angry-the barber and the whore he had been looking forward to had been put off. Soon he heard the black man's horse fall in behind him.

Dan Suggs traveled at a leisurely pace; they didn't see Wilbarger or his horses again that day. When they spotted a spring with a few low trees growing by it, Dan even stopped for a nap.

"You don't want to steal horses in the daytime," he remarked when he awoke. "It works better at night. That way you can put it off on Indians, if you're lucky."

"We better pull the shoes off these horses then," Roy Suggs said. "Indians don't use horseshoes much."

"You're a stickler for details, ain't you?" Dan said. "Who's gonna track us?" He lay back in the shade and put his hat over his eyes.

"Wilbarger might, if he's so rough," little Eddie said.

Dan Suggs just chuckled.

"Hell, I thought we come up here to rob banks and regulate settlers," Jake said. "I don't remember hiring on to steal horses. Stealing horses is a hanging crime, as I recall."

"I never seen such a bunch of young ladies," Dan said. "Everything's a hanging crime up here in Kansas. They ain't got around to making too many laws."

"That may be," Jake said. "Horse stealing don't happen to be my line of work."

"You're young, you can learn a new line of work," Dan said, raising up on an elbow. "And if you'd rather not learn, we can leave you here dead on the ground. I won't tolerate a shirker." With that he put his hat back over his face and went to sleep.

Jake knew he was trapped. He could not fight four men. The Suggs brothers all took naps, but Frog Lip sat by the spring all afternoon, cleaning his guns.

Late in the afternoon Dan Suggs got up and took a piss by the spring. Then he lay down on his belly and had a long drink of water. When he got up, he mounted his horse and rode off, without a word to anyone. His brothers quickly mounted and followed him, and Jake had no choice but to do the same. Frog Lip, as usual, brought up the rear.

"Dan's feeling real bloody," little Eddie said.

"Well, he gets that way," Roy said. "I hope you don't expect me to preach him a sermon."

"He don't want them horses," little Eddie said. "He wants to kill that man."

"I doubt he'll turn down free horses, once he has them," Roy said.

Jake felt bitter that the day had turned so bad. It was his bad luck again-he couldn't seem to beat it. If Wilbarger had been traveling even half a mile further west, they would never have seen him and his horses, and they would be in Dodge, enjoying the comforts of the town. On that vast plain, spotting three men and some horses was a mere accident-as much a matter of luck as the bullet that killed Benny Johnson. Yet both had happened. It was enough to make a man a pessimist, that such things had started occurring regularly.

They soon struck Wilbarger's trail and followed it west through the sunset and the long dusk. The trail led northwest toward the Arkansas, easy to follow even in the twilight. Dan Suggs never slowed. They struck the river and swam it by moonlight. Jake hated to ride sopping wet, but was offered no choice, for Dan Suggs didn't pause. Nobody said a word when they came to the river; nobody said one afterward. The moon was well over in the west before Dan Suggs drew rein.

"Go find them, Frog," he said. "I doubt they're far."

"Do I shoot or not?" the black man asked.

"Hell, no, don't shoot," Dan said. "Do you think I'd ride all this way and swim a river just to miss the fun? Come on back when you find 'em."

Frog Lip was back in a few minutes.

"We nearly rode into them," he said. "They're close."

Dan Suggs had been smoking, but he quickly put his smoke out and dismounted.

"You hold the horses," he said to little Eddie. "Come on once you hear the shooting."

"I can shoot as good as Roy," little Eddie protested.

"Hell, Roy couldn't hit his foot if it was nailed to a tree," Dan said. "Anyway, we're gonna let Jake shoot them-he's the man with the reputation."

He took the rifle and walked off. Jake and the others followed. There was no sign of a campfire, no sign of anything but plains and darkness. Though Frog Lip had said the men were close, it seemed to Jake they walked a long time. He didn't see the horses until he almost bumped into one. For a moment he thought of trying to grab a horse and run away bareback. The commotion would warn Wilbarger, and maybe one or two of the Suggs boys would get shot. But the horse quickly stepped away from him and the moment passed. He drew his pistol, not knowing what else to do. They had found the horses, but he didn't know where the camp was. Frog Lip was near him, watching, Jake supposed.

When the first shot came, he didn't know who fired it, though he saw a flash from a rifle barrel. It seemed so far away that he almost felt it must be another battle. Then gunfire flared just in front of him, too much to be produced by three men, it seemed. So much shooting panicked him for a second and he fired twice into the darkness, with no idea of what he might be shooting at. He heard gunfire behind him-it was Frog Lip shooting. He began to sense running figures, although it was not clear to him who they were. Then there were five or six shots close together, like sudden thunder, and the sound of a running horse. Jake could see almost nothing-once in a while he would think he saw a man, but he couldn't be sure.

"Frog, did you get him?" he heard Dan Suggs ask.

"No, he got me, damn him," he heard the black man say.

"I swear I put three into him but he made it to that horse anyway," Dan said. "You alive, Roy?"

"I'm alive," Roy Suggs said, from back near the horse herd.

"Well, what are you doing over there?" Dan wanted to know. "The damn fight was over here."

"We want the horses, don't we?" Roy asked, anger in his voice.