“I just don’t like the idea of a Blackwood sniffin’ around here, is all. You can do better than that.”

She turned on him, hands on her hips. “Like your friend Shipman, I suppose?”

“Sly’s got his faults, but he ain’t no Blackwood.”

“No, he’s just a smuggler.”

“A merchant,” James put emphasis on the word. “The merchandise is good and legal. It’s the law that ain’t. And he didn’t have to go to Velasco and get all shot up. He did it tryin’ to get me to go away from there. I owe him.”

“Right. You owe him. I don’t.”

Annie had had no experience doctoring gunshot wounds. This one, despite several days of healing, still looked bad enough to give her stomach a few uneasy moments. She gritted her teeth and went about cleansing the wound, then putting a fresh dressing over it. She could tell that it hurt Shipman considerably, but he did not complain. She stewed over the question a while before she asked it. “Did you really go to Velasco to try to get James away?”

“That was what I figured on when I went. By the time I got there, though, there wasn’t any gettin’ a-loose. The fight had started real good.”

“Seems to me you’re pretty good at runnin’ from fights.”

“The ones I know I can’t win? You’re damned right. I ain’t no fool.”

“And James is?”

“He’s young and green. He’ll grow up if somebody don’t kill him first. He’s done a right smart of it in the last few days.”

“Well, I thank you for tryin’, anyway, Mr. Shipman.”

“My friends call me Sly.”

“Maybe your friends do, but I’ll call you Mr. Shipman.”

IT WAS the next afternoon that young Mordecai came over the hill and up to the cabin as fast as he could make his horse run. He was shouting before he leaped from the saddle. He took long running strides up to the dog-run. “Uncle James! Uncle James! Soldiers comin’!”

Annie had been in the kitchen, preparing to cook supper on the hearth. She met James on the dog-run as he came out of the room he shared with Sly Shipman. James demanded of the boy, “What’s this about soldiers?”

“I saw them myself, Uncle James. There’s a big bunch of them, and they’ll be comin’ over that hill yonder in a minute or two. You’ve got to take my horse and head for the woods.”

“But I haven’t even been home a full day yet, hardly. How’d they know?” He frowned angrily. “Isaac Blackwood.”

Annie said, “Isaac wouldn’t betray you; he’s not that kind.”

“Finis would. Maybe Isaac said somethin’ to Finis.”

“We don’t have time to argue about it now. Take Mordecai’s horse and ride.”

James did, but with reluctance. Annie watched anxiously as he crossed the river and disappeared into the heavy timber on the other side. Not many minutes later, a large body of horsemen appeared on the trail that led to Andrew’s house and, farther, to Michael’s. She said to Mordecai, “If they ask, you’re here to help me with my garden. We haven’t seen James in way over a year.”