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About that time I saw Judith. She was lying still; her eyes were wide open
and her head was tilted back a mite and she was looking right at me.
"Flagan Sackett," she whispered, "you go right away from here. If they find
you they will kill you."
"I came for you."
"You're a fool. I am going to marry James Black Fetchen."
"Over my dead body."
"You stay here, and that's the way it will be. You go away."
Was I mistaken, or did she sound less positive about that business of
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marrying Black? Anyway, it was now or never.
I had no idea whether anything had gone wrong or not, but that stampede
should have begun before this. It was unlikely I'd ever get this close again
without getting myself killed, so I said, "Judith, you slip back here. Quiet
now."
"I will do no such thing!"
"Judith," I said, for time was slipping away and I'd little of it left, "why
do you think the whole Fetchen outfit came west?"
"They came after me!" she said proudly.
"Maybe ... but they had another reason, too. They ran because the law wants
them for murder!"
The Fetchen boys were still standing together, talking. Another man had
gotten up from his blankets and gone over to join them. About that time one of
the group happened to move and I saw why they were all so busy.
Standing in the center was someone who didn't belong with them, but someone
who looked familiar. He turned suddenly and walked off toward his horse. I
couldn't see his face, but I knew that walk. It was Larnie Cagle.
"I don't believe you!" Judith whispered.
Me, I was almighty scared. If Cagle was talking to them he would have told
them we were close by, for from the way they welcomed him you'd have thought
he was one of the family.
"I've got no more time to waste. Black Fetchen, Burr, and them killed your
grandpa, and I've got a telegram from Tazewell to prove it"
She gasped and started to speak; then suddenly she slipped out of her
blankets, caught up her boots, and came into the brush. And I'll give her that
much. When she decided to move she wasted no time, and she made no noise. She
came off the ground with no more sound than a bird, and she slid between the
leaves of the brush like a ghost.
We scrambled, fear crawling into my throat at being scrooched down in that
brush. Suddenly behind us somebody yelled, "Judith! ... Where's that fool
girl?"
Behind us I heard them coming, and we got to our feet and started to run.
Just at that moment there was a thunder of hoofs, a wild yell, a shot; then a
series of yells and shots and we heard the herd start.
Glancing over my shoulder to get my direction from their fire, I could see
the clearing where they were camped. Everybody had stopped dead in their
tracks at those yells, and even as I looked they ran for their horses. And
then the cattle hit the brush in a solid wall of plunging bodies, horns, and
hoofs, ... maddened, smashing everything down before them.
My horse was safely out of line, but we had no chance to reach him. I jumped,
caught the low branch of a cottonwood and hauled myself up, then reached and
grabbed Judith, pulling her up just as a huge brindle steer smashed through
beneath me, flames from the fire lighting his side.
Behind us at the camp there were shots and yells as they tried to turn the
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herd, then I heard a scream, torn right from the guts of somebody trampled
down under churning hoofs. Then the cattle were sweeping by under us, and I
could feel the heat of their bodies as they smashed through.
It could have been only a few minutes, but it seemed a good deal longer than
that.
As the last ones went by, I dropped to the ground, caught Judith by the hand,
and she jumped down beside me. We ran over the mashed-down brush where the
cattle had passed. Running, it taken us no time at all to reach my horse, and
he was almighty glad to see me. I swung up, and took Judith with me on the
saddle. She clung to me, arms around my waist, as I hit out for our camp where
we'd planned to meet.
Yet all I could think of at the moment was Larnie Cagle. He had sold us out.
It was nigh on to daylight when I met Moss and Galloway. They came riding up,
leading one of the Costello mares and a pinto pony.
Judith switched to the mare's saddle and we headed north for Hawkes's camp,
rounding up what cattle we saw as we rode. By the time we reached the camp we
had at least five hundred head ahead of us. The four of us had spread out,
sweeping them together and into a tight bunch. Here and there as we rode,
other cattle came out of the gray light of morning to join the herd.
Kyle Shore was the first man out to meet us, and right behind him came Ladder
Walker.
I looked over at Shore, measuring him, and wondering if he had sold us out
too. Or how far he would go to back his partner.
We walked the cattle up to the camp. Evan Hawkes, in his shirtsleeves and
riding bareback, came to meet us, too.
He glanced from the cattle to Judith. What he said was, "You boys all right?"
"Yeah," I said. "But the Fetchens may be hurting. The stampede went right
through their camp."
"Serves them right," Walker said.
The cattle we'd brought moved in with our herd, and we swung our horses to
the fire. When I got down I stood back from the fire where I could see them
all. "Who's with the herd?" I asked.
"Cagle, Bryan, and McKirdy. Briggs just rode in to build up the cook fire."
"You sure?"
They looked at me then, they all looked at me. "Anybody seen them?" I asked.
Briggs looked around from the fire. "Everybody's all right, if that's what
you mean."
"Did you talk to any of them, Briggs?"
"Sure. Dan McKirdy and me passed by several times. What are you getting at?"
There was a sound of singing then, and Larnie Cagle rode in. "How about some
coffee?" he said. "I'll never make no kind of a night hawk."
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I stepped forward, feeling all cold and empty inside. "I don't know about
that," I said. "You did a lot of riding tonight."
Of a sudden it was so still you could almost hear the clouds passing over.
He came around on me, facing me across the fire. Nobody said anything for a
moment, and when one of them spoke it was Kyle Shore.
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