We separate and fight our way to the south bank. As my hands collide with cold rock, I hear a screech of brakes ahead. Crawling out of the water, I realize my legs are nearly numb.

“They must have driven like banshees to get here that fast,” Stone says through rattling teeth. “Tear off a piece of your shirttail.”

“What?”

“Your shirttail.”

In my weakened state, tearing the soaked cotton is like trying to rip a phone book in half. As I struggle with the hem, Stone jabs a stick through a stretched-taut place and rips off a long piece.

“What do you want me to do? Make a surrender flag?”

He hands me the fabric and rolls over on his stomach. “Wad up a hunk of that and jam it into my wound.”

I tear off most of the shirttail and squeeze it into a tight wet tennis ball of cloth, then crouch over Stone’s back. Garbled voices float to us from the direction of the campground.

“Where are you hit?”

“Left cheek of my ass. Took out a plug of muscle, I think.”

I feel along his left buttock until my fingers mush into a warm opening. Stone doesn’t even flinch. The hole is ragged, but it runs across the buttock at an angle, like a deep grazing wound. The swelling below it is considerable, though, and it’s bound to get worse now that he’s out of the cold water.

“Hurry!” he grunts.

I squeeze the cloth into a tighter ball and hold it against the opening. “Ready?”

“Do it.”

In one hard stroke I depress the cloth into the hole as he tenses beneath me. It reminds me of helping my father pack a decubitus ulcer when I worked for him in high school. Now I need something to hold the packing in the wound. Removing my soaked windbreaker, I pull off what’s left of my shirt and slide it under Stone’s left leg, then tie it over the hole.

“That’s the best I can do for now,” I tell him, pulling my jacket back on.

“What’s the name of the bar?” he asks, rolling over. His face is even whiter than before.

“The Silver Bell. Bartender’s Tiny McSwain.”

“Good. Move your ass, kid.”

“What are you going to do?”

He drops one hand to his waist, where the butt of his .45 glints dully in the dark. “Slow those bastards down for you.”

“I’ll stay and help you, damn it.”

“You can’t help me. You don’t have a gun. You’ll help me by getting your ass back to Mississippi and nailing Portman’s hide to the barn wall.”

“Stone—”