Andy noticed his horse beginning to paw the ground and realized ants were climbing up its legs. He brushed them off and led the horse out of harm’s way. “We ought to be smarter than ants. Looks like we could figure out some way to divvy up the land and not fight over it.”

“That’s been tried. Never did seem to work. There’s too much difference in the way white folks and Indians look at things. I remember once the government started a reservation up on the Brazos River. F’olks blamed a lot of the Indian raids on tribes from there. Maybe they was right and maybe not, but it didn’t make no difference. The Indians was forced off of the reserve and pushed up north of the Red River. Even the peaceable ones.”

Andy said with a touch of pride, “The Comanches I was with never let the white men put them on a reservation in the first place. They still run free.”

Shanty’s brow furrowed. “I hope you ain’t thinkin’ you’d like to go back and run with them.”

“The notion strikes me sometimes. I’ve got no kin here that wants me. I ain’t forgot the time my uncle came and looked me over. Said even though I was a Pickard, like him, I was too savage to live with his family. He went off and left me.”

“Folks here have treated you good . . . Mr. Rusty and Mr. Len, Tom Blessing, and them.”

“That makes it hard, in a way. Every time I take a notion I’d rather be Comanche, Rusty or somebody does me some special kindness. Then I don’t know whichaway to turn.”

“Don’t forget that it was Indians who killed your real mama and daddy.”

“I was too little to remember much about that. Mostly I just remember that the Comanches gave me a good life.” He grimaced. “I guess it’s easier bein’ an ant. They always know which tribe they belong to.”

Shanty straightened his back and groaned at the pain the move brought him. “Everybody wants to live to get old, but it sure don’t come cheap.” He turned his head and stared off down the wagon road. “We got company comin’. He’s runnin’ like he had Indians chasin’ him.”

Andy did not recognize the rider at first. “Looks like he’s pushed his horse about as far as it can go.”

Shanty nodded. “A man don’t abuse an animal that way without he’s got reason.”