Nothing about this place struck him as sacred, however. He said, “I doubt there’s any spirits watchin’ us here.”

Jake said, “We’ve got nothin’ against you boys. But you have to understand, we’re out here to try and strike a trade with the Indians. We can’t afford to stir them up.”

“Then just let us have a little somethin’ to eat, please sir, and we’ll be on our way. Nobodyil ever know we was here.”

The trader considered. “No, you’re here, and you’d just as well stay all night with us. No tellin’ what you might stumble into out in the dark.”

Andy was so intent on eating, and on watching Billy wolf down a big chunk of roast, that he paid little attention to the appearance of the camp. But as his appetite began to be satisfied, he looked around. He realized there were no wagons. A string of pack mules was tied to a rope picket line beyond the firelight. The packs lay on the ground in the middle of camp. From what he could see, they contained mostly bottles and jugs.

Whiskey runners, he realized.

The Comancheros had used liquor mainly as a come-along to help them dispose of their trade goods. With these men, liquor was the trade goods.

Jake plied him with questions about himself and Billy. He seemed particularly interested when Andy told him about the offer James and Evan had made to the Comanchero about ransoming the boy with horses. The man’s eagerness made Andy uneasy. He wished he had not talked so much.

His stomach full, Billy’s exhaustion caught up with him. He fell asleep and slumped over onto the ground. From one of the packs Jake brought a blanket and spread it. “The boy’s wore out. I expect you are, too. You’d best get yourself some sleep.”

Andy was tired, but he was suspicious, too. He lay beside Billy on the blanket but tried to fight off weariness. He could hear several traders huddling with Jake near the fire, talking in low tones. He heard just enough to sharpen his suspicions, then to stir fear.

Jake suggested that they should take the boys home and demand that the Monahan family give them as many horses as had been proposed to the Comanchero. The smuggler in gray argued if they took the boys back to the band from whom they had escaped, the Indians should be grateful enough to take the whole cargo of whiskey off their hands at an even higher price in horses.

Jake seemed not to have thought of that. “Adcock, you got a good head on your shoulders.”

Andy felt chilled at the thought of going back to Fights with Bears. He doubted that Steals the Ponies, tied down by Comanche tradition, could do much to help him or Billy.