The Indians were quickly fading from sight. Rusty looked relieved. “You afraid of dark spirits?”

“I wish I could say I’m not, but there’s still a part of me that wonders.”

“Don’t worry. We’ll sic Preacher Webb onto them.”

CHAPTER

NINETEEN

By the next day the neighbors were dispersing back to their own homes, feeling that at least for a time the Indian threat was over. A courier arrived looking for Captain Burmeister. He handed the officer an envelope. “You’re hard to find,” he said. “Been huntin’ you for a week.”

“I have been busy for a week, and much more.” Burmeister tore the edge from the envelope and unfolded the letter, frowning as he read. Finished, he called his rangers around him. “It is from the governor’s office that I have received this. The money is gone. We are to disband.”

Tanner commented, “I didn’t figure we’d get paid anyhow.”

Rusty asked, “What’ll you do now, Captain?”

“The letter says there is other work for me. I am to become a judge.”

“That’s better than ridin’ all over hell and gone chasin’ Indians and whiskey runners.”

“Perhaps.” The captain folded the letter and put it in his shirt pocket. “I am no longer so young. But I liked it, to be a ranger again even for just a little while. What will you do, Private Shannon?”

“Go back home. I’ve some unfinished business there.”

“You will be subject to arrest if you go there.”

“I’m subject to arrest anywhere. Even here, if the Oldham brothers take a notion to come for me again, or to send somebody. I can’t go on for-ever with a warrant hangin’ over my head. I want to get things straightened out, whatever it takes.”

Burmeister said, “All I can give you is a wish for good luck. I have not even the money to pay you for the time you have served.”

“I knew that when I joined up. It’s always been that way with the rangers. One day of side meat and a month of sowbelly.”

Burmeister nodded agreement. “If a character witness you need, send for me. I will gladly serve.”

Rusty knew Burmeister’s record as a Union officer during the war would give his word extra weight in a reconstruction court. Especially if he were a judge. “I’d be much obliged.”

Josie grasped both of Rusty’s hands when he told her. She said, “You have friends here who would never let the state police take you away. Stay. The government is bound to change sooner or later.”

“I can’t keep leanin’ on my friends. I’ve got to find some way to settle this. I have to try to get back what’s mine.”

“I’ve told you before, it doesn’t matter to me whether you have anything or not.”

“It matters to me. I’ve got to set things right.”

“Even if it means goin’ to jail?”

“Even that.”

She leaned her head against his chest. “All right,” she said reluctantly. “I’ll keep on waitin’.”