The next morning Rusty went out before breakfast to saddle Alamo and pack Chapultepec for an early start. Preacher Webb walked with him but remained outside of the corral. Rusty said, “I thought we were leavin’ today.”

“You are, but I’m not goin’ the rest of the way with you. Looks like I’m needed here.”

Rusty suspected the quarrel between Monahan and Dawkins weighed heavily on the minister’s mind. “Maybe I’d better stay with you.”

“You’re obliged to obey orders and go on. I feel my obligation is to try to pour oil on troubled waters. I smell blood in the air.”

Rusty paused, his hand on the rope that tied the mule’s pack. “You don’t reckon Dawkins would do somethin’ to the family . . . to the womenfolks and all?”

“I doubt he’s crazy enough to hurt the women. People around here would turn against him in a minute.” Webb seemed to see through Rusty’s eyes and into his mind. “You’re worried about the girl.”

“Her and all of them. They’re good folks.”

Webb nodded. “Good people, caught up in bad times. I’m afraid that’s been the way of the world since the first days. We won’t see the end of it in our short span upon the earth.”

The family filed into place at the table. Rusty waited until everyone else was seated, then took the position he had been given at the end of a bench across from Geneva and the younger girls. Lon Monahan’s eyes were tired, his shoulders sagging. After Webb said grace, Monahan gulped half a cup of coffee. He tore a biscuit in half, started to eat it, then laid it on his plate. His face was grim.

“I didn’t sleep none last night,” he said. “Caleb Dawkins kept runnin’ through my mind. Ain’t there somethin’ in the Scriptures, Preacher, about handwritin’ on the wall?”

“It foretells things to come.”

“The handwritin’ is on the wall here. Texas is about to pull out of the union. When it does, all hell is liable to bust loose. Fanatics like Dawkins will run wild and free, for a while at least. They’ll be comin’ after folks who’ve talked against Texas pullin’ out.”

Clemmie protested, “Everybody around here is your friend, Lon, even if they don’t agree with you. They wouldn’t let him—”

“He won’t ask them. He’ll just go ahead and do it, or try to.”

James’s voice was confident. “You’ve always been able to take care of yourself, Pa. And we’ll be with you, all of us.”

“I couldn’t ask for a better family. But anything that puts me in danger puts you-all in danger, too. The way I see it, we’ve got two choices. We can stay and tough it out, or we can leave here before the trouble starts.”