“Yes sir, most of the time.”

The captain shook his head in disdain. “It’ll take forty years for this part of the country to become civilized.” He looked down at Bethel. “We’ll see what we can do about your mother’s wound, then carry her to town. Can you get one of your hands to hitch a team to your wagon?”

A black woman hesitantly entered the front door, her husband close behind her. “Lord God,” she cried. She rushed to Bethel’s side.

Bethel told the man to fetch a team and hitch up the wagon as the police captain had said.

The captain gave directions as two policemen carried Elnora into her room. He asked Bethel, “About your father. . . you want to bury him here or in town?”

“Here,” she murmured. “Here’s where he belongs.”

The captain turned to his men. “Well, don’t just stand there. Get that old man up from the floor. Carry him into that room yonder. The least we can do is to lay him out like a Christian.”

Andy followed Bethel into the room where the police had carried her mother. She studied Andy as if she Were seeing him for the first time. “What were you doin’ here?”

He made sure none of the rangers could hear him, then explained his mission for Farley. “Your dad was fetchin’ some money for him out of the parlor. It’s probably in his pocket.”

Bethel’s voice went hard. “I almost wish they would catch him. It was him and his wild ways that caused all this.”

“I heard the war turned him thataway”

“A lot of other men went to war without goin’ outlaw. Anyway, it won’t do any good to give him the money now. He won’t leave ‘til he’s evened the score for this.”

“How many more state police has he got to shoot?”

“Two, at least. The Oldhams.” Bethel turned to the black woman. “Flora, I want you to go and bring all the hands. We’ve got a lot to do. We’ve got to let our neighbors know.”

Andy stopped in the door and stared down the hallway toward the darkness of the front yard. “I dread goin’ back and tellin’ your brother what happened.”

“It’s mostly his doin’.”

Andy saw a dark figure step up onto the porch and enter the hallway into the lamplight. It was Rusty. Andy met him halfway. “You oughtn’t to be here,” he said urgently. “There’s police all over the place.”

“I heard the shootin’.”

Andy beckoned Rusty into Elnora’s room. He said, “You followed me, didn’t you?”

“I just said I wouldn’t come with you. I didn’t promise not to follow you. Wasn’t no tellin’ what trouble you might get into.” He looked with concern at the wounded woman. “What about her husband?”