Not sure what this day would bring, he decided to make coffee and eat some breakfast before he made his next move. While he ate his meal of venison, he tried to determine just what that move should be. He was still up against three hardened criminals, so he was not at all casual about how he intended to accomplish the task he had set before himself. The only thing he was sure he must do right away was to find out where they were and what they were doing, then hope they made costly mistakes. With that as his first objective, he lightened Rascal’s load by hanging the rest of his meat supply, as well as his other supplies, in the trees by his camp. For his deer meat, he picked a small limb and hung the bundle as far out on the limb as he could without the weight of it breaking the limb. He didn’t mind sharing a little meat with a hawk, but he hoped to avoid donating all of it to a mountain lion. It was high enough off the ground that he could reach it only on horseback while standing in the stirrups. Once that was done, he wheeled Rascal and headed back to Wolf Creek.

When he was within a mile of Bodine’s, he guided Rascal to the east for what he figured to be about a mile and a half before cutting back in a more southerly direction. So, when he reached the river, he was quite a way downstream of Bodine’s as well as the two cabins. From that point, he made his way upstream, so as to approach the cabins from below them.

* * *

While Hawk was having his breakfast and preparing to scout the cabin, the occupants of the cabin had been getting ready to track him. “How do you know he ain’t out there in the bushes somewhere just waitin’ to get a shot at one of us?” Jesse wanted to know.

“’Cause, if he was, he’da most likely took a shot at me when I was out there waterin’ the side of the cabin,” Trip replied.

“You walked around to the side of the cabin?” Jesse asked, thinking Trip wasn’t showing much respect for the possibility that Hawk was waiting for just such an opportunity.

“Tater’s still a-layin’ right in front of the door,” Trip said. “I didn’t think it would be respectful to pee on him. Besides, I ain’t talkin’ about the side of this cabin. I went across the stream to the other cabin.”

“That’s crazy as hell. You’d best be thinkin’ about the jasper we’re dealin’ with,” Booth told him. “He’s already took care of Blue and Tater.”

“Well, I’ll tell you why I ain’t worried about steppin’ outside this cabin,” Trip said. “He ain’t waitin’ for us to come outta here ’cause he’s gone.”