“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’.”

Holding her hands, he stepped back to look at her. “Josie, you know I get strong feelin’s when I’m with you. For a long time I wasn’t sure if they were really for you or if they were for somebody else.”

“You mean Geneva?”

He did not answer. He did not have to.

She said, “She’s got a life of her own, a husband and two little ones. She’s out of your reach. But I’m not. I’m here. All you have to do is ask me.”

“I know. But I don’t have a right to ask you so long as I’ve got nothin’ to offer.”

“I don’t need anything. I’d live in a tent. I’d live in a dugout if it was with you. It wouldn’t bother me.”

“It would bother me. I couldn’t do it.”

She looked up at him, eyes glistening. “Then go. Do what you have to. I’ll be here whenever you come back.”

Something was different about Andy. Rusty puzzled over it a minute, then realized what it was.

“What did you do to your hair?” he asked.

Andy said, “Alice cut it for me. It looked ragged with the braids hacked off.”

“You don’t look much like a Comanche anymore.”