Sheriff Foster nodded, and Gaines flashed his dirt-brown grin in return. He drew one of his two Navy Colts and started down the steps of the Atherton Arms Hotel.

Suddenly a gunshot rang out, instantly silencing the crowd. Everyone looked in the direction from where it came.

Samuel Pritchard rode alone into town, straight down the middle of Main Street. He was leading a second horse with two bodies, wearing gray coats, draped over the saddle. A smoking .44 revolver was in his hand.

“No need to send out a rescue party,” Pritchard announced. “There ain’t no Confederate raiders.”

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

“You heard me,” Pritchard said, parting the crowd and riding up to the steps of the Atherton Arms. He dismounted and stuck the revolver in his belt along with the other gun.

“There are no reb raiders,” he declared again to the assembled townsfolk. “Only Burnell Shipley’s men, dressed up like Confederate rebels.”

“Samuel,” his mother cried out. Dovie and Idelle scurried past the gawkers to his side.

“Pa’s dead,” Pritchard said, as he took his mother and sister into his arms. “He was murdered by these two men, along with four of their friends. They burned down our house, too.”

Dovie looked into the exhausted face of her son and knew immediately his words were true. She and Idelle began to cry. He pressed them both to his chest.

Earlier that night, with Ditch’s help, Pritchard had buried his father, using shovels from the barn. They planted Thomas Pritchard at the edge of his property, overlooking the pond. Then they constructed a makeshift cross from scrap lumber and placed it at the head of the grave.

“You want to say any words?” Ditch asked. He knelt and bowed his head, leaning on his shovel. Pritchard knelt next to him.

“Ain’t much to say,” Pritchard said as tears slowly fell down his dirt-streaked face. “Pa was a good Christian man, Lord, and a good husband and father. He was peaceful by nature. His only mistake was trying not to take sides in a fight that wasn’t his to begin with. I know it ain’t for us to question your ways, but Pa didn’t deserve what he got. He didn’t go looking for trouble. He just didn’t want to shed the blood of his fellow man.”

Pritchard wiped his eyes and stood up. “I’ll be takin’ a different path, Lord. Amen.”

“Amen,” Ditch repeated.

Ditch helped Pritchard lift the bodies of Bob Toole and Deputy Glenn Bedgley and lash them over the saddle of one of their horses. Pritchard took the two Remingtons, leaving Ditch the Colt, and mounted the other horse.

Ditch protested when Pritchard refused to allow his friend to accompany him into town.