The moon had dulled and turned the color of red clay, all except for a silver rind on one edge.

Andy shivered. “Maybe it’s an omen. Another war, or somethin’.”

Rusty laid a comforting hand on the youngster’s shoulder. “It’s just an eclipse.”

“What’s an eclipse?”

“They say it happens when the earth thrown its shadow across the moon. And once in a while the moon passes in front of the sun. I’ve seen chickens go to roost in the middle of the afternoon. It don’t mean anything.”

“The medicine men would say—”

“Medicine men see omens in just about anything that’s out of the ordinary.”

Tanner stared at the moon. He had let his cigar go out. “Looks kind of spooky to me, too.”

Half the time Rusty could not tell whether Tanner was joking or not. He glared at his friend, wishing he wouldn’t reinforce Andy’s misgivings. “Maybe the schoolhouse has got a book that tells about things such as that.”

Andy argued, “Books can’t tell you everything. I remember one night an owl lit on top of Raven Wing’s tepee. The medicine man wanted to do a ceremony and take the curse off of him. Raven Wing said he’d have to wait because he needed to go and find a lost horse. Turned out an Apache had it, and he killed Raven Wing. Books don’t tell you that about owls.” Andy looked at the moon again. “If it burns up, the nightsil be awful dark.”

Rusty perceived that the silver edge was growing larger. The shadow was slowly passing from the moon. “Look. It’s comin’ back.”

Tanner said, “You’re right. Appears the fire is goin’ out.”

Rusty started to argue. “There never was any fire. It was just. . .” He realized Tanner was pulling his leg. The skinny former ranger enjoyed a practical joke almost as much as he enjoyed a good meal or a lively fight.

“Someday, Len, the Lord is goin’ to smite you hip and thigh.”

“The yeller-leg Yankee government has done smote me. Made me pay a tax on my horse and even charged me two dollars just for bein’ alive. Poll tax, they called it, and I ain’t got to vote even once.”

“Two dollars must’ve come hard for you.”

“Too hard. I didn’t have it to give them, so they made me work on the road for two days. I thought they made slavery illegal.”

“Not when it’s for taxes.”

The Federals had imposed their own handpicked government on the state. They had agreed to let most Texas men vote provided they take an oath of allegiance to the Union. But when the election did not go the way they wanted they nullified the results. Now the graft-ridden state government was spending three times more than its predecessor and had raised taxes to an alarming degree.