Dorothy Garlock - [Colorado Wind 03] by Wind of Promise Page B

seen men aplenty. This one knows what he’s about. Them’s three bad fellers we come up against. We be mighty lucky DeBolt came along.”
    “He’s right.” Ellie rolled and unrolled her hands in her apron. “Oh, I wish we’d never come to this godforsaken land.”
    “If Henry goes, I go,” Vanessa announced stubbornly before stalking off in the darkness.
    She was mounted behind Henry with the shotgun in her hand when Kain rode into camp. He eyed them for a long moment, as if that was what he expected. John spoke to Mary Ben, picked up a big buffalo gun, checked the load, and climbed up on one of his horses. He rode Indian fashion with only a blanket between him and the horse as if he’d been doing it all his life.
    “Does she know how to use a gun?” Kain nodded toward Mary Ben. “And would she use it if she needed to?”
    “You can bet yore life on it.” John rode to the far side of the camp and let loose a stream of tobacco juice before he spoke again. “Ma’am, ya’ll be all right with Mary Ben. She’ll do what’s got to be did. She been down the trail ’n cross the creek.”
    Kain’s eyes sent a silent message to Vanessa that she interpreted to mean, “He’d much rather have Mary Ben along than Vanessa.” She tilted her chin defiantly and glared at him.
    “Come on. Let’s get at them before they know this is all they’re up against.” Kain led off and John followed with Henry and Vanessa bringing up the rear.
    Vanessa, snug against Henry’s back, could feel his excitement. She wondered why in the world Aunt Ellie had permitted him to go. Henry was her whole world. If anything should happen to him it would kill her aunt. It would kill her, too, she thought and hugged him close.
    “You be careful, hear?” she whispered.
    He didn’t answer because Kain had stopped his horse and they had moved up beside him.
    “The camp is just ahead, Henry. John and I will ride in. You stay back until I tell you to get the mules. Understand?”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “And you stay out of sight,” he said to Vanessa.
    Fifty yards from the camp he held up his hand and Henry halted the horse. He pointed his finger. Henry slid off the horse and went silently through the brush to the spot where the mules were tied to a line strung between two trees. Kain and John walked their horses to the edge of the camp. Light streaked the eastern sky. Birds chirped noisily and fluttered in the willows that grew beside the river. The horses and mules, not used to being together, added to the noise by stamping and blowing gusts of breath through quivering lips.
    The men by the fire didn’t hear anyone approach until a horse whinnied a greeting. They looked up, and the heavyset man jumped so quickly to his feet that he dropped his coffee cup in the fire. There was a short hissing sound when the liquid hit the flames, and then quiet. They stood waiting, their eyes going from the man on the sorrel to the old man riding bareback.
    “Our mules got loose in the night. I reckon you caught them and are holding them for us,” Kain said. “We’re much obliged. We’ll take them off your hands.”
    “Ya will, huh?” The fat man wiped his greasy hands on his shirt and looked nervously at the thin, dark man in the black vest. “Wal, now, I’m athinkin’ we ort a study on that a bit. Finders is keepers is what I hear. Ain’t that right, Tass?” The thin, dark man stood stone still, his coal black, unblinking eyes on Kain’s face. The light-haired kid grinned, showing missing teeth. Kain knew exactly what the kid was thinking: they’d be easy pickings because there were only two of them against three.
    Although the fat man was doing the talking, Kain knew instinctively the breed was the one to watch. He wore his gun tied down and his right hand was ready. He had that still look about him that spelled trouble.
    “The mules belong to the folks back there. We’re taking them back.”
    “Are you?” The dark man spoke for the first