According to Rivers's account to the general, the enemy seemed to come out of the stones themselves. Florence tried to make sense of it.

"How can that be?" she asked.

"You were only a few miles past the canyon rim. I know you, Ryder. You would have gone back at the first sound of gunfire." Ryder only had a fleeting recollection of the sound of a single shot. He remembered wanting to move, trying to move, and not being able to lift his head.

"Miss Hamilton was complaining about her canteen water," he told Florence.

"I drank a few mouthfuls to show her there was nothing wrong with it."

His brief smile was humorless and self-mocking.

"That's just about the last thing I remember."

"The water was bad?"

"I know my horse and I didn't cover much ground before I keeled over in the saddle. Miss Hamilton managed to get me to a shallow cave of rocks and let me fall. The next thing I recall is being yanked awake by Rivers and ordered to lead the way back to the canyon floor. I was in and out of consciousness most of the way back to the fort." Florence was interrupted by the guard poking his head into the corridor.

"You can only have a few more minutes," Harry said.

"I have to take the lantern for lights out."

He withdrew before he encountered Florence's verbal expression of wrath or her cane tip.

"I've a good mind to change the duty roster myself," she said under her breath.

"That boy should mind his manners."

"Don't be too hard on Harry, Flo. He's all right.

Just doing his job." Florence's mouth pursed to one side sourly.

"You're not taking this seriously, Ryder. You're in a lot of trouble.

The only reason you haven't been summarily hanged is because you know a few people in high places who think your scalp may be worth something more than it would as a trophy." No one had ever accused Florence Gardner of not speaking her mind.

"Now suppose you tell me why Anna Leigh Hamilton wants everyone to know you tried to rape her if it isn't so?"

"Revenge?"

"Is that a question or your answer?" she asked with little patience.

"I.

don't pretend to know what Miss Hamilton hopes to gain by telling her tale," Ryder said.

"But I assure you, it's a tale." Florence nodded her head once, an emphatic gesture that indicated her satisfaction.

"I knew it." she said.

"Why didn't you tell Joshua that she's lying?"

"I did tell the general."

"I see," she said slowly, unhappily.

"He didn't believe you."

"It's not difficult to understand why," Ryder said.

"Miss Hamilton looked pathetically ill used, and she had Rivers and Private Carr to corroborate her story--at least as far as to how they had found her wandering on the flats." He rubbed the lump on his head again.

"She says she hit me with a rock to get away." Florence snorted, the expression in her eyes patently disbelieving.

"Seems to me the last thing she wanted the night before was to get away from you."

"That was before I showed her I wasn't interested in what she was offering."

It began to make sense to Florence.

"Aaah," she said softly.

"So that's what you meant by revenge. She saw an opportunity to turn the tables on you and didn't hesitate to use it." He shrugged.

"It appears that way."

"Did she know the company was under attack in the canyon?"

"I don't know," said Ryder.

"Probably."

"But doesn't she see how it looks?" Florence demanded.

"Her tale is wagging the dog." The attempted rape of the senator's daughter was not the sole charge against Ryder. He was being accused of dereliction of duty for leaving the company with Anna Leigh. What he said he had done for reasons of safety now appeared more suspiciously motivated. His advice to First Lieutenant Matheson, overheard by Rivers and a sergeant, to split the company, was viewed as the strategy that led to the company's almost total demise. Then there was the matter of the gold. The four wagons the company guarded were not only loaded with foodstuffs for the future patrol. Each wagon bed had a false bottom which concealed gold ore ready for refining. The Army had an agreement with Holland Mines to provide armed escort to the Waterhouse Station on the Southern Pacific rail line. The plan had been worked out in some detail over the past few months, and Ryder McKay had been essential to its development and its follow-through.

There were very few people who knew about the contents of the wagons; even the secondary officers of the escorting company didn't know what they were carrying. The loading had been done in secret, under Ryder's strict supervision, and only a few men--all murdered in the attack--were privy to the knowledge that they were escorting the mother lode. Now, with gold ore valued at over $100,000 in the hands of the Chiricahua Apache, Ryder McKay stood charged with treason. New York City "I've made a decision," Jay Mac announced at breakfast. He had purposely delayed going to work so that he could speak to Moira and Mary Francis at once. Although neither of them looked up from their food, Jay Mac knew he had their full attention.

"I've had quite enough of this silence."

Not only weren't his wife and his daughter speaking to each other, neither was speaking to him.

"Nothing good can come of it, so I want it to cease."

"Very well," Mary said obediently.

"Mama, will you please pass the salt?" Moira's reply was stiff but perfectly audible.

"Of course, dear. Would you care for anything else?" Jay Mac was not amused, but he managed to keep his expression just this side of thunderous. He cleared his throat to signal his disapproval.

"Suit yourselves, but it will be a long journey across the country if that's the best you can manage."