He blocked the thoughts racing through his mind. The poorwoman had been through hell tonight, and he didn't have any business conjuring up such lustful notions. Besides, he was a U. S. marshal and the job carried responsibilities with it. He couldn't act on his impulses, no matter how irresistible they were.

Caleb began to fidget in his arms then, pulling Cole back from his fantasies. The baby was wet. Cole quickly found his nappies and lay him on the side of the bed close to Jessica.

"No, " Caleb chanted over and over. He swung his leg up, kicking Cole in the arm, and tried to flip over so that he could slide down on the floor.

"Oh, no you don't, " Cole whispered. "You're going to get changed, and then you're going to sleep." He tied the straps securing the nappy, picked up Caleb, then grabbed his baby doll and shoved it into his arms. The baby was grinning and chattering away as Cole carried him over to the narrow cot the manager had sent up, tucked him in, and quietly left the room.

Caleb was right behind him. Jessica heard Cole mumble something under his breath and covered her mouth with her hands so he wouldn't hear her laugh. She had been horrified to find him in her room, but then she'd heard him whispering to her son and realized his intentions were quite honorable. Cole was a good man, and she and her son were perfectly safe with him.

She fell asleep with good intentions of rescuing Cole.

Caleb ended up sleeping on Cole's lap for a couple of hours, woke up chattering, and then fell asleep on Daniel's shoulder. Needless to say, the marshals didn't get much rest.

Xaniel was summoned to the telegraph office at seven the following morning.

Cole met Sloan in the lobby and ordered him to hire two deputies to help guard the women. He waited at the hotel until the sheriff strolled in a few minutes later with Robert York and John Carver. The two men were heavily armed and looked dangerous. They convinced Cole they knew what they were doing, and he quickly filled them in on what was expected of them. Jessica and Rebecca were to stay in their rooms until the marshals returned to meet with them. Grace had been ordered to stay in bed until the doctor looked in on her that afternoon.

"Don't let anyone but Dr. Lawrence go upstairs, " he ordered. "York, you stand outside Jessica's door. Carver, you take Rebecca's, and Sloan, you watch Grace's."

"But I haven't had my morning coffee yet.

Couldn't I go into the dining room and get something to eat? " Sloan moaned.

"No, " Cole answered. "You're going to stay outside Grace's door. t} Lack of sleep made Cole more surly than usual, and Sloan was smart enough not to provoke him.

Cole took the key to the jail from the sheriff and headed across town.

The office was stuffy, and so he left the door open to get some fresh air. Everything smelled like smoke to him, which was probably why he didn't have an appetite.

It was almost eight when Daniel arrived. He carried a pot of coffee in one hand and a wad of telegrams in the other.

He didn't waste any time telling Cole what he had learned. "One of the Blackwater gang was captured."

"Where did they get him? " "He was hiding in one of the caverns just inside the Texas border.

They've taken him over to Blackwater." Cole went to get a clean cup from the shelf across the room. He poured himself some coffee, took a drink, and then asked, "Is he alive? " "Barely, " Daniel answered.

"The sheriff in Maple Hills put a couple of bullets in him. It was a piece of luck that the sheriff stumbled on him.

The man was sick as a dog with influenza, but he still put up a fight.

I hope to God he lives long enough to stand trial. Damn, I wish I were there now. I can't wait to talk to him."

You can't believe he'll tell you anything."

"Oh, yes, I do believe that. He's going to tell me everything I want to know."

"Is talking all you plan to do, or did you have something else in mind?

" he asked quietly.

"That depends on how the trial goes. He isn't going to walk away, "

Daniel said. He shook his head and added, "Judge Rafferty won't let that happen. If the man's one of the Blackwater boys, he'll hang. "

"You sound like you know this judge personally."

"I do, " Daniel answered. "Every one in Texas knows him, or at least has heard of him.

Rafferty has quite a reputation for being hard-nosed.

Folks think he makes Hangin' Judge Cyrus Burns look like a saint. You don't cross Rafferty and keep on breathing. He's also got a real personal stake in all of this, " he added. "Rafferty lost a good friend in a robbery up in Kansas. The two of them went way back, and he took the man's death hard. He wants revenge."

"Then he's personally involved. A fancy lawyer could argue for a new judge."

"Maybe, but he'd lose, " Daniel said. "Rafferty's the law in west Texas.

Fortunately, he's also an honest man. Hell, if he weren't, he would have handed the man over to a lynching mob by now."

"You think they've had trouble? " "Yes, I do." Cole thought about that for a moment, and then asked, "What's in the other telegrams? "

"They're all from Rafferty. He must have been standing inside the telegraph office and was in a talkative mood. He wanted to know if we had any leads, and I wired him back that there was a remote possibility of a witness.

He jumped right on that. I told him there might have been a woman hiding in the bank, that we think it's one of three, but none of them will admit it . . . " "What did he say about that? " "He wants us to bring all three of them to Blackwater. He says he can get the truth out of them."

"Does he have the authority to make us bring them? " Daniel leaned back against the wall. "Yes and no, " he answered.

"We're on special assignment, so we don't have to follow his instructions."

"But? " "Rafferty's got some powerful friends in Washington. He might be able to exert enough pressure to force us to do what he wants. I don't want to get him riled up, so I'm letting him think we'll cooperate. I promised him that we would know for certain today if we had a witness or not."

"And will we know today? " "Hell, yes, we'll know."

"Grace might not be up to talking today. We might have to wait."

"We'll talk to her this afternoon, then. By the end of the day, we'll know whether or not we have a witness." Cole muttered an expletive.

He'd just spotted Rebecca on the boardwalk across the street. She was wearing a pink dress and carrying a pink-and-white-striped parasol.

She was so lovely, she was literally stopping traffic as men paused to gawk at her. Her guard, Carver, trailed close behind, glancing in all directions.

"Here comes Rebecca, " Cole said. "Ah, hell, she just stopped to talk to the reporter." Ryan looked outside. "He was hanging around the telegraph office while I was inside, and when I came out, he went running in. He probably knows everything now, and from the look on Rebecca's face, I'm guessing he just told her they caught one of the gang."

"How do they know? " Daniel turned back to Cole. "Know what?

" "That the man they caught is one of the gang."

"He was carrying a large sum of money."

"So? Lots of people carry large sums of money when they travel."

"That's true, " Daniel conceded. "But they also found a copy of the Rockford Falls Gazette in his saddlebags. The date's the same as the day of the robbery."