“I’m glad you want to come along, fellas,” Eli said to Farron and Ignacio. “If that black belongs to anybody, it’s you two, seein as how he like to killed you. I think we’ve got enough riders. Fewer know about this, the better. If Willie Thaw gets word, every drifter and barfly in the state will know what we’re up to. Now from what those wranglers told me, there will be nobody around Saturday night. All we got to do is open the gate and turn ’em loose. Spuds here has figured out a route that will take us where we’re headed without running into barbed wire or cattle guards.”

“Or lawmen,” Ezra put in.

“Or lawmen. On a Saturday night, the law folks usually have their hands full with drunks and fights. By the time they get up Sunday morning, we’ll be halfway to where we’re going.”

“Where’s that?”

“I’ll let Two Spuds show you.”

Spuds stepped down off the porch, grabbed a stick, sketched out a map in the dirt. “We were thinkin the high country due west, up where Eli and Ezra here caught some mustangs fifty years ago,” he said, “but Plenty Doors figures we’re better off headin for Montana, put more distance between them horses and the wranglers workin down here.”

The route Two Spuds sketched would cross the Powder River south of Acme, head pretty much due west to cross the Bighorn River just north of Bighorn Lake, then follow the river north across the Montana state line. “West of the canyon, there’s a long plateau. There’s wild mustangs right up here, close to Pryor Mountain. It’s Crow land and there aint no domestic stock.”

“I know the place,” Farron said. “Taint that far, maybe a hundred miles, but some of it is rough country. Mustangs have been around there two, three hundred years, far as anyone knows.”

Eli nodded. “It’s just about perfect. There aint no guarantee they won’t drift back down into Wyoming, but as long as horses got forage they don’t tend to move far. We don’t want to chase these horses too much in daylight, but two nights should be enough. We’re set to have a full moon Saturday night, so this is as right as the time is ever going to get.” He turned to Ezra. “Now are you dead sure you want to come along?”

“Hell no. But that’s one thing that aint changed in fifty years. If you’re ridin out, I’ll be right beside you.”

“So will I.”

Eli looked up. Emaline had been listening on the other side of the screen door. She stepped out onto the veranda and sat down next to him.

“You will what?”

“I want to come with you.”

“I’m sorry, honey. I can’t allow that.”

“Why not?”