"Is that gold in the wagon?" the same person called out.

Silence.

"Let me put it a different way. I know you've got gold in the wagon. I'll make a deal with you. Walk away and leave the gold and you'll live."

"Keep him talking," whispered Sabrina. "I'll see if I can get a bead on him." She found a space between two small rocks at the top of the ditch and took aim into the woods on the other side of the road.

"If we try to walk away, you'll kill us," I called out.

"You have my word."

"Yeah, right."

"We don't have anything against you."

"Then why have you been trying to kill us?"

"Strictly business."

"What do you mean, 'strictly business'?"

"We were hired for a job. Simple as that. We were promised a lot of money. You give us the gold, that'll pay us a lot more than we would have gotten. In other words, give us the gold, we don't need you anymore. You can walk away."

"There are no eggs here." I figured his reaction would tell me something.

"No what?" Well, I got my answer. They knew nothing about the eggs, so they weren't there to retrieve them.

"Who's paying you?" I asked, trying a different tack.

"An interested party."

"Not good enough."

"I really don't think you are in a position to demand answers."

"I have some time on my hands."

"If …" Sabrina's gun went off. I rolled away a couple of feet. I would have liked to think it was the force of the blast that sent me rolling, but of course, that was impossible. It was just the natural reaction to having an explosion go off six inches from my ear. Hanging around with her, I was going to need a hearing aid mighty soon.

I rolled back, my ear ringing.

"Hit anything?" I asked.

"The speaker let out an 'umph' when I hit him. You didn't hear it?"

"My right ear was otherwise engaged."

I heard a muffled "shit" come from the woods. I couldn't tell if he was muffled or if my ear made it muffled. Either way, Sabrina had hit him. Sadly, it wasn't a kill shot.

"That was a mistake," came his voice, less muffled now.

I determined that we had three shooters, which matched up with what we saw on the river. Two of them were hurting and really pissed now.

There was no more talking. For the next fifteen minutes nothing was said from the other side of the road. Everyone seemed okay on our side—except for the two dead guys, of course. I hadn't yet located Mario though. Of little concern at this point.

Every once in a while a bullet would come flying our way, but we were all pretty well hidden.

It was a stand-off. We couldn't go anywhere. Beyond all of our hiding places was a fair amount of open space. If we tried to escape, we'd be mowed down in no time. On the other side of the road they could certainly leave if they wanted. They could always try to eliminate us a later. However, the lure of the gold was too strong. They knew that now would be the best time to get it. Once we reached the town and the boat, things would become more complicated.