“All the same to you,” Hawk answered, “I think I’d best get goin’, if I’m gonna catch up with those deer.” He was almost in the cover of the trees when Blue suddenly jerked his rifle to his shoulder and fired. Anticipating just such a move, Hawk dropped to one knee at the same time he heard Blue’s shot rip into the bark of the large tree beside him. Without thinking, he automatically returned fire, his shot catching Blue in the side. By the time Tater brought his rifle to bear, there was no target to shoot at, for Hawk disappeared in the thick forest of firs behind him. So Tater wisely took cover behind a sizable rock.

“Damn it, damn it, damn it,” Tater heard Blue moaning as he lay wounded at the rocky edge of the stream. “Tater, I’m shot,” he gasped. “I need help.”

“How bad is it?” Tater responded. “Can you crawl?”

“No, damn it, I need help,” Blue pleaded. “I don’t think I can move.”

“Just hang on as best you can. If I get out in the open to help you, I’m liable to get shot, too. Might be best for me to go back to the hideout and get the other boys to make sure that jasper ain’t settin’ there waitin’ to pick another one of us off.”

“You can’t leave me here!” Blue wailed, as he frantically held his side, trying to stop the bleeding that was already forming a shallow scarlet pool in the wet rocks he lay upon. “It’s a half hour’s ride back to the cabin. I might be dead before you get back.”

“You just hang in there, Blue,” Tater said, all the while looking right and left for any sign of the man who shot him. He knew he could not stay there behind that rock, in case the man might be moving around in those trees to get a better angle to shoot at him. “He’s got us in a tight spot, but I’m gonna go get some help. You just lay low. He’ll think you’re dead. You’ve got your rifle handy, so you can shoot him if he comes back. I’ll go get the other boys.” He started backing away from the rock, intent upon getting back to the horses.

“Tater! You son of a bitch!” Blue cried out, and fired his rifle in Tater’s direction, but Tater was already sprinting toward the horses at that point and Blue’s shot was nowhere close. The effort he expended caused him to fall back in pain as he grabbed desperately at the wound in his side, trying to stop the bleeding.