“He’s always had a mind of his own.”

“Damned pity he never used it much.” James looked up at the men who had ridden with him. “Let’s get him to camp and see what more we can do. Mack, we’ll put him on your horse. You can ride behind the saddle and hold him on.” He faced Rusty again. “Did you have to shoot Buddy’s horse, too?”

“He did it himself.”

James nodded. “That don’t come as any big surprise.” He helped Clyde Oldham and Barlow lift the half-conscious boy into the saddle. The man named Mack sat behind the cantle, one arm holding Buddy in place. James jerked his head at Rusty and Tanner. “You-all come and go with us.”

Rusty saw no choice. “We’re keepin’ our guns.”

“Be careful whichaway you point them.”

Riding, Rusty studied Geneva’s brother. James had been forced to leave home early in the war and live by his wits in a wild area where the only people he encountered were Indians and fugitives like himself. The strain had put a haunted, desperate look in his eyes. Rusty knew him to be near his own age, mid- to late twenties, but James had the appearance of a man closer to his forties.

Rusty wanted to ask him a dozen questions, most having to do with Geneva, but this did not seem the time.

James broke the silence. “You still a ranger?”

“Not since yesterday.” He explained the circumstances under which he and Tanner had left the company.

James said, “You took a long time about doin’ the smart thing.”

“It wasn’t smart. We just didn’t see where we had any choice. We were tryin’ to explain that when Buddy-Boy decided to commence firin’.”

Clyde Oldham said bitterly, “He couldn’t have hit you. He never could shoot worth a damn.”

“I wish I’d known that.”

Oldham seemed to be making an effort not to cry. “I brought him out here to protect him, to keep the war from takin’ him. And now this . . .”

Rusty had no answers left. A thousand of them would not change what had happened. He asked James, “Are you the chief of this camp?”

“This camp ain’t got no chief. Every man is free to come and go, to do what suits him as long as he don’t hurt somebody else. We stay together for mutual protection against the Indians, the army, and the rangers.” His eyes narrowed. “Especially the rangers.”

“You don’t need to be concerned about the rangers anymore. There’s not enough left to guard a jailhouse, much less to raid a brush camp. I’d worry a lot more about the Indians.”

“Worst they’ve ever done is make a try for our horses. Raidin’ parties ride a long way around a camp as big as ours.”