Grace visibly shivered. "She almost succeeded. If you and Cole hadn't come when you did, we all would have died. Jessica would never have left the house without Caleb and Tilly and me, and the smoke would have gotten her."

"The very first robbery . . . wasn't the building burned to the ground? " "Yes, " Daniel answered. "The first thought all of us had was that someone was trying to cover embezzlement. The bank manager swore that the receipts balanced every night. Every penny was accounted for, " he added. "And we ran a thorough check on all the officers and employees.

Every one came up squeaky clean."

"Marshal, can you ever forgive me?

" Grace asked. "If Jessica and I had told Daniel the truth, you wouldn't have been shot. All of this could have been avoided. "

"That's one way to think about it, " Cooper told her. "But there's also another. If you two had told the truth at the beginning, Rehecca wouldn't have said she was the witness. She could have happily gone on her way and let her friends go after Jessica. We might never have known that Rebecca was involved."

"Then it wasn't terribly wrong of Jessica and me to withhold the truth?

" "Grace, if you're expecting me to thank you, it isn't gonna happen, "

Daniel said. "You should have told me the truth." His mind was consumed with Rebecca. "I let her slip right through my fingers."

"I bent over backwards to accommodate the woman, " Cooper admitted. "I even let her . . . Ah, Daniel, I told her Grace and Jessica were going to meet her in Red Arrow, and I also let her send a telegram. She told me she wanted to let her friends know she wouldn't be joining them, but we now know that was a lie. If you go into Red Arrow, they're going to be waiting for you."

"What about Cole and Jessica? " Grace whispered. "They'll be walking into a trap." Daniel didn't seem very upset by the possibility. A gleam had come into his eyes, and he rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

"What are you thinking? " she asked. "Aren't you worried about Cole and Jessica? " "No, they have to come through here to get to Red Arrow, " he explained.

"And they're at least a day behind us. Maybe two. ^ "Then you won't go into Red Arrow at all. You'll take a cut through to Blackwater? "

She was nodding over her own conclusion when he contradicted her. "Oh, no, we're going into Red Arrow all right."

"But they'll be waiting.

. . . " "God, I hope so." Cooper had been listening to the conversation with his eyes closed. He didn't bother to open them when he asked, "You do have a plan in mind, don't you? " "Yes, " Daniel answered. "But it involves you, Cooper."

"Daniel, he's been seriously wounded, and his fever only just broke."

"He won't have to do much, " he promised.

"So what do you want me to do? " Cooper asked.

Daniel smiled. "I want you to die. "Jg And in green underwood and cover Blossom by blossom the spring begins.

or two long days and nights, four members of the Blackwater gang impatiently waited to ambush the women when they got off the train in Red Arrow. Three of them kept vigil at the depot, while the fourth kept to the shadows as a backup in the event his friends didn't succeed.

Two trains arrived daily, one at ten in the morning and the other at six at night. The men were thorough in their search. After the passengers departed, a clean sweep was made of every car just to make certain the women weren't hiding.

The hours in between the trains' arrivals were spent in the town saloon. The four of them drank hard whiskey together, but none of them got drunk. Mr. Robertson did get a little careless, though, and the others had to help him cover up his spot of trouble. Robertson blamed his lack of control on boredom, for surely that was why he had taken the homely little whore named Flo out to one of the caverns and cut her. He hadn't meant to kill her, just scare her a little, at least that's what he believed when he started out with her perched on his saddle, but once he took his knife out and started carving, he got such a kick out of hearing her scream he didn't want to stop.

His friends helped him bury the body, and aside from having to listen to Robertson boast about how she had squealed like a pig, they all put the inconvenience behind them. Flo was just a whore, after all, and no one was going to miss her.

Because they still hadn't heard from Johnson, they assumed he'd failed to kill the women himself. Robertson told the others he wished their boss were there because he was much smarter than they were and would surely be able to figure out where the women were hiding. He wasn't there though, for he and his mistress had gone south to get Bell out of jail.

On the third morning of their watch, they heard through the grapevine that a U. S. marshal named Cooper had been killed. Someone had shot him and thrown him off a train. A wire had been sent to the sheriff in Red Arrow telling him to be on the lookout for any suspicious characters. He relayed the information to the owner of the saloon, who told it to everyone who came into his bar for a drink.

The four men felt they had cause for celebration. They sat together in the corner and shared a bottle of Rabbit Rye among them.

Robertson, bleary-eyed from lack of sleep, wasn't in a festive mood.

"What's taking those women so long to get here? According to the boss's calculations, they should have gotten off the train yesterday or the day before." He had only just made the remarks when an old coot, with long straggly hair and a smell about him as rank as a skunk's spray, came walking into the saloon.

He strutted up to the bar and draped himself across the counter. "Give me a drink, Harley. I just seen something real special, and I'll tell you about it after I wet my whistle." The bartender, a big man with beefy arms and missing front teeth no one ever noticed because he never smiled, sauntered over to his customer and squinted at him.

"You got money today, Gus? " In answer, the misshapen, scrawny man slammed a coin down on the countertop. "I sure do, " he boasted. "I got a lot of money today, almost three whole dollars."

"Where'd you get it? " Harley asked as he poured Gus a watered-down drink of whiskey.

"Never you mind, " Gus answered. "Do you want to hear what I seen or not? " "I'm listening."

"I think maybe we're getting us some new whores, and the two I saw were real perty and fresh looking. I seen them both, and I can't make up my mind which one I want to diddle with first. Maybe I'll do them both."

"Are you drunk? " Harley asked.

"No, I ain't drunk yet, but I plan to get that way as soon as you'll pour me another drink. I seen what I seen, " he insisted. "Two men were with them, " he added before taking a long gulp. In his greed to quench his insatiable thirst, he spilled liquor down the sides of his face and quickly tried to catch the drops with the back of his hands and then licked them dry.

"They hid them all right, but I seen where. I went looking for Flo.

Didn't find her, " he said. "But I seen the women all right."

"What are you talking about, you old goat? There aren't any fresh whores coming here. I would have known about it. Don't I run this town? " "Yes, Harley, you surely do."

"That's right, " he growled. "And I'm telling you, I didn't hire any new women."

"I'm telling you what I seen. Two men hid those perty girls in the cavern just south of town.

Maybe these men are gonna give you some competition and start up a whoring business of their own." Harley slammed his hand on the bar.

"We'll just see about that, " he hissed. "Now that Flo took off, I could use a couple more good women.

Did you say there were only two men with them? Just two? " "That's what I said, " Gus agreed. "Not too smart neither. Those two fellers left those women on their own, tucked inside the cavern, but one of them must have gotten curious, because she poked her head out the entrance to have herself a look around. Then the other one had to look too, and I seen them both. They're mighty fine looking, " he added with a snicker. "Nice and young, and sure to be feisty." Harley was fuming. He was considering riding out to the cavern to steal the women when Robertson strolled over to the bar.

Gus's stench ensured that Robertson wouldn't get too close. "Tell me what you saw, old man, " he demanded, his hand caressing the handle on his knife. "I want to hear all about those women." It had been a long while since Gus had been the center of attention, and he gloated while he repeated the story, but before he got the chance to describe the two ladies in detail, Robertson had motioned to his friends and left the saloon. The three others followed him out the door.

They were gone a long time, almost three hours, and when they returned to the saloon, Gus was nowhere in sight. Robertson wanted to go looking for him, but the others talked him out of it. They reclaimed their table in the corner to discuss the situation.

Cole strode through the swinging barroom doors a moment later. Harley took one look at the badge on his vest and reached for the shotgun he kept tucked under the counter.

"Put your hands on the counter, where I can see them, " Cole ordered.

He was being inordinately polite. Inwardly, he wanted to wait until the bartender had gone for his weapon and then shoot the insolent look off his face, but now that he was a marshal, he knew he couldn't give in to all of his urges.

"The sheriff told me all about you, Harley, " Cole said. "He said you think you run this one-block town."

"It's true, " Harley boasted. "I do run it."