THEY RODE OUT UNDER A BUTTERMILK MOON, the earth just beginning to cool after sundown so that it was balmy but not too hot, with a light breeze from the mountains. When it was time to ride, Eli and Ezra were grinning like schoolboys. Emaline tried to stay calm and quiet, but her mouth was so dry she could barely swallow. She wore blue jeans and cowboy boots, one of Bobby’s old flannel shirts that fit her just right along with his black cowboy hat and spurs. Juanita had her long, black hair tucked up under her hat. In a cowboy shirt that had belonged to Leo and her blue jeans, she looked so pretty that even Ezra noticed, and he wasn’t the type to toss compliments around to the ladies.

Emaline was riding Popcorn while Juanita was on a big, raw-boned chestnut gelding. He was a little hard to handle, but Eli said he could run all night, so that was the horse he chose for her. Two Spuds and Joe Plenty Doors rode out with them from the ranch, but Ignacio Salazar and Farron Blue were to wait a half mile short of the holding corral with twenty spare saddle horses, which they would haze along with the mustangs. Once all the riders were together, Eli said that Farron and Ignacio should have the honor of actually freeing the black. The first thing was to ride carefully around the enclosure to see if there were any wranglers keeping watch. They could hear the sounds of hundreds of restless horses shuffling in the dark, but the men were clearly spending this Saturday night in Gillette. The only hitch they ran into was with the gate at the entrance. It was locked with a heavy padlock. Farron took one look, rode over to the stack of baled prairie hay, came back with a twist of baling wire. It took him less than a minute before the padlock fell away. Farron gave the gate a little shove and it swung open.

“I guess I shouldn’t ask how you learned to do that,” Eli said.

Farron grinned. “A misspent youth. More use than goin to college, I’d say.”

“I expect so. Now how do you want to work this deal? I don’t want you runnin afoul of that black to where you get ate again.”