"What are you getting at? Hurry up before Stovers comes hunting us and ruins everything," snapped Harrow uneasily.
"I'm getting at it," the gunman said coolly. "I warned you, Tom, to let Stubb drive that coach back up here and then stay put until we got in with Kerrigan. I didn't want him in on a dirty job like that. But you sent him south to meet us and give a hand, when he didn't want to come. I sent him up on a ridge with a rifle to cripple Kerrigan and he didn't want to go either. I'm paying my debts and salving my conscience in my own way."
His slim body writhed into sudden motion. Smoke and fire began to spurt from his hip, from the new gun Harrow had had made for him and mailed from back East. Kerrigan made no move to help. He watched as the two bodies crumpled under the terrible shocking power of the .45. He understood Saunders now, and what lay behind those ever-smiling dark features.
Saunders sheathed the heavy pistol and stepped back and looked at Kerrigan.
"I misjudged you badly, Saunders," Kerrigan said. "I figured you should have stuck to a .44 on a lighter frame and shorter barrel. I'm glad I never had to throw a gun against you."
"So am I," Saunders said. "I think you'd have killed me. Well, I guess that squares it for Stubb and Kitty. I always did feel sorry for her, like you did, I guess. And Stubb was so gone on her for two years he couldn't sleep nights."
In silence Kerrigan picked up his rifle and stepped past the bodies of the two men. In silence he and Ace Saunders walked to a white horse tethered to a branch of a small fir tree.
Saunders untied the reins and examined the bloody cuts made by the cruel spade bit.
"Damn a man who'd treat a good horse that way," he said softly.
They came to the coach and saw a small mob of people gathered around it, among them Captain Rawlinson and several of his men and a number of Apache Indians wearing blue army shirts with the tails hanging outside. A short distance farther on more of the scouts and soldiers ringed a small group of about ten or twelve sullen, disarmed Apaches..
One of them wore an old hat pulled down over hair tied at the back with buckskin thongs. Loco.
But Kerrigan's eyes were upon a woman coming toward him, her face alight, seeing nobody but him. She came straight into his arms and he felt a long shudder go through her and then a sigh as all tenseness went out of her. She lifted her face, her eyes bright.
"Lew," she whispered softly, "don't say a word. Just hold me for a moment and let's not think of anything now. Hold me tight, Lew."
He held her tight and kissed her again…
On the following afternoon Joe Stovers and Captain Rawlinson of the red beard and sharp wit rode in from Dalyville and came to Clara Thompson's boarding house.
Ace Saunders opened the front door for them and the three came into the dining room where Kerrigan, clean shaven and wearing a new pair of boots, sat drinking coffee with Carlotta and Clara.
"Sit down, boys," Clara said. "I'll have more coffee in just a few minutes."
Rawlinson tossed his campaign hat all the way across the room and straddled a chair in a most unofficer-like fashion. He pulled at his red beard and grinned at Kerrigan.
"Everything turned out very well for the army this trip. We suffered only four light casualties, thanks to the work of those Apache scouts, Kerrigan. We killed thirteen of Loco's bronco band and seven or eight more got away. We got Loco and a few of his boys, but I honestly think the fellow was tired of the whole business and wanted to see his family. Clara, I had hoped for a brevet to the rank of major after last night's work, but I'm afraid it was spoiled by the escape of that little devil Kadoba. Kerrigan, where do you suppose he'll head for now?"
"Hard to say, Captain," Kerrigan answered and shook his head. "My guess is that he'll steal himself a young squaw off the reservation and take off for Mexico to join some of the others down there."
"Is it true he showed you where there's tons of gold?"
"Not tons. He told me where there's a two-inch vein of pretty rich stuff."
"And you're going after it, of course?"
Rawlinson looked surprised as Kerrigan shook his head, then laughed. "Come to think of it, why should you? From what Joe here told me, you didn't come out of this partnership with Harrow as bad as one might think. About twenty-five thousand dollars, including some gold bars Saunders here gave you. And a pretty woman I could fall in love with, except that I used to be in love with Clara until I met my wife."
He looked at Clara and his face grew serious. "Clara, I'm going to confess something to you. In that fight with Loco years ago I won a brevet captain's rank for rescuing one of my wounded troopers under fire. I have thought many times during the passing years the big if of what might have happened if I had stayed with your husband. If it will make you feel any better, I swore through the years I'd get Loco. I asked for an assignment in the Dalyville area—and that hunch paid off, thanks to Kerrigan's part in it."
"Have you made out your official report yet?"
Kerrigan asked. "I'm referring to Judge Eaton and the truly great loss to the territory in his death. Don't look surprised, Captain. I mean it. I wish that you'd specifically mention that in your official report."
"He was a damned thief and as crazy as a loon," Joe Stovers growled. "But Lew's right. Ace and me are the only law up in this part of the country now. The others are dead or high-tailing it out of the country. You going to stick around until a new judge is appointed from Washington, Ace?"
Saunders nodded absently. He stirred at his cold coffee and smiled. "I like the feel of this badge, Joe, after the way I led Stubb along the wrong road for so many years. For that reason I'd like to keep it. He'd be tickled if he knew, and it more or less gives me a better chance to look out after Kitty and see what she wants to do in the future."
Kerrigan rose and Carlotta rose with him. He knew what was going to happen to Kitty now. The inevitable result would be as natural as a pair of aces on the table. Kitty had been born to love much and be loved and she'd gravitate toward Saunders like iron drawn to a magnet.
"Where are you two going, Lew?" Clara asked.
"Down to finish removing a man's name from the coach," Lew Kerrigan smiled. "As long as I didn't have to kill Tom after all, I feel no compunction about taking it. Carlotta and I will be in no hurry. We'll keep on going until we find the right town and the right people and the right ranch. We're going to forget the past and start a whole new life with no shadows."
They went out through the kitchen and off the porch and down the narrow path to the gap in the old wall. At the opening he bent and swung her into his arms, and felt her own around his neck and the warm, gentle passion of her mouth.
Through a cut in the distant peaks the westering sun threw its bright rays down and flooded the great expanse of the bend in Thompson Canyon.