A little farther on, a man afoot spotted them about the same time they saw him. He began to run, stumbling, falling, getting up, and running again. James spurred ahead of Rusty and Bailey, his pistol in his hand.

“If that’s Pete . . .”

Rusty soon saw that the fugitive was Scully.

James shouted, “Stop, Scully.”

Scully darted to the left. James fired at the ground just past him. Scully darted back to the right. James fired again, the bullet kicking up dirt at Scully’s feet. Scully dropped to his knees and began to cry.

“Don’t shoot me! I never killed nobody!”

Rusty thrust the pistol into Scully’s face. “where’s Pete?”

Scully had trouble controlling his voice. “He crippled his horse. He took mine and went on. Bound for the Nations.”

James glanced at Rusty. “Just like we figured.”

Rusty asked, “How far ahead is he?”

“I don’t know. An hour. Maybe two.”

“By the tracks, he’s been pushin’ hard.”

“He don’t care if he kills a horse. He just cares about gettin’ away.”

Rusty beckoned James and Bailey to one side. “What’ll we do about Scully? Anybody want to stay and watch him?”

James said, “I vote we shoot him right here.”

Bailey said, “The lieutenant would be right put out about that. Anyway, it’s the other one we want the most.”

Rusty turned to Scully. “We’re goin’ on after Pete. You start walkin’ back to the Dawkins place. We’ll pick you up there.”

James protested, “How do we know he won’t keep walkin’?”

“Because he knows the army’ll hunt him down and hang him like a sheep-killin’ dog.”

Scully cried, “I never killed nobody. The army’s got no call to hang me.”

“Then you wait for us at Dawkins’s. Maybe Sergeant Bailey will testify for you.”

Scully looked at Bailey and trembled. “You’ll tell them it was Pete done it all? You’ll tell them I didn’t do nothin’ to get hanged for?”

“I’ll tell them what I know. I can’t do no better than that.”

Following Pete’s trail was not a heavy challenge. Even the few times Rusty temporarily lost it, James or Sergeant Bailey quickly picked it up again. There was no mistaking Pete’s intention. He was headed for the Red River as directly as the terrain would allow him to travel.

And there was no mistaking James’s intention. He meant to kill Pete on sight. The fierce look in his eyes made a chill run down Rusty’s back.