The only show of retaliation came from Rufus Bodine, who was not willing to stand by and see his horses stolen. Out the back door, he came, ran to take cover behind the smokehouse, and promptly began blasting away at the corral with his shotgun. Hawk quickly took cover behind the corner of the barn. He had no sooner taken cover when a chunk of the corner post was chipped away by a shot from a rifle fired by Tom Pointer from the front porch. The return fire placed Hawk in a position he didn’t want to be in and should have thought about before he stampeded the horses. He had no reason, and no desire, to shoot at Bodine and Tom Pointer. In spite of the fact that he had extremely low regard for the dishonest old bandit, he had no reason to take his life. And he couldn’t blame him and his employee for trying to stop someone who appeared to be stealing their horses. Then he thought of Reuben Pressley again, and the possibility he might join in the fight. As it was with Bodine and Pointer, he had no desire to kill the blacksmith. With all this in mind, he had no choice but to withdraw before he was forced to kill to save his own life.

There was still no sign of Booth or his brother when Hawk retreated to the bank of the river, keeping the barn between him and the gunfire from Bodine and Tom. Moving quickly along the bank, using the trees as cover, he returned to find Rascal patiently waiting beneath the large oak where he had left him. He stepped up into the saddle and headed back up the river for about fifty yards before turning Rascal back toward the west to make sure there was no chance anyone at Bodine’s could see him. He was heading to a low ridge close by the trail from Sun River. The ridge would be the best place to watch the whole trading post, some one hundred yards away. So after he left his horse on the back side of the ridge, he climbed up to the top and knelt there while he waited to see if Booth and the other member of his gang were going to help gather their horses.