Pitt glanced back and saw a beautiful sight. The ultralight was out of control, the racing engine shrieking like a banshee as fragments of the propeller spiraled in the air, spraying in every direction. He could see the pilot fighting the controls in a futile gesture as the craft hung poised in the air as if tied to a string. Then the nose dipped, and it plunged lifeless into the middle of the river, making a crater in the water and causing a huge splash before bobbing back to the surface for a few moments and then sinking rapidly until it vanished.

"Nice shooting," Pitt complimented Julia. "Wyatt Earp would be proud of you."

"I was lucky," Julia said modestly, not about to admit that she had been aiming at the pilot.

"You put the fear of God in the pilot of the other two. They're not about to make the same mistakes as his buddy. They'll lay back out of range of your Colt, take their time and pepper away at us at a safer altitude."

"How much farther until we're out of the canyon?" "Four, maybe five miles."

They exchanged looks, she seeing the fierce determination in his eyes, he seeing her head and shoulders sag from severe fatigue, mental and physical. It didn't take a physician to see Julia was half-dead from lack of sleep. She had run on sheer guts as far as she could go, and had come to the end of the road. She turned slightly and stared at the bullet holes that had splintered the bow of the Chris-Craft.

"We're not going to make it, are we?" she muttered the words dully.

"Hell yes, we're going to make it!" he answered as if he truly believed it. "I didn't interrupt my vacation and go to all the work of bringing you and these people this far to let it end now."

She gazed at his dark, craggy face for a long moment, then shook her head in defeat. "I can't get off a straight shot if the ultralights stay more than a hundred yards away, not at that distance against a moving target from a boat that's bounding all over the place."

"Do the best you can." Hardly brilliant words of encouragement, Pitt conceded, but his mind was on other matters as he swerved around a series of large boulders protruding from the river. "Another ten minutes and we'll be home free." "What if they both come at the same time?" "You can bet on it. Take your time and divide your fire, two shots at one then two shots at the other. Maintain a show of resistance, just enough to keep them from getting too cocky and coming in too close. The farther they stay away, the more difficult for the gunners to fire with any accuracy. I'll throw the boat all over the river to spoil their aim."