“All right, then. I'm heading back to Globe for a bit to get ready. That'll take a day or two. If I was you, I would work on my excuses why I didn't do my job, why I didn't support my country. Because I might not know where that goddamned mine is, but I know where the Guardian office is, and I know the editor. Call me when you change your mind.”

“Thanks for stopping by, Marshal. Always a pleasure, and I will be calling you, but it won't be for help. I'll be calling to let you know that I have your prisoners and that you can come and get them at your leisure. I'll keep them safe and warm for you.”

Haynes slammed the door on his way out.

“Sheriff,” Mart Kempton said, “we really should go after those Power boys. I think the marshal was right. We need to bring them in. There's talk around, and it's not doing us a lot of good. I think we should go up there and get those Powers.”

“You do?”

“Yes, Sheriff, I do. They're slackers who have no respect for authority. And that makes us look weak. And we'll seem even weaker if we lie in wait for them to come down and pick them off one by one.”

“The way that gets no one hurt.”

“No one's going to get hurt. We'll go up. Four of us. You, me, Marshal Haynes, and Kane. More, if we think we need more. Haynes can deputize more for the posse. Those Powers will see they're outmanned and outgunned and just give up. And we'll come riding back into Safford with the Power boys in tow, and there will be a big commotion, and we'll all be heroes. There's nothing to it.”

“There's a word there I don't like—‘outgunned.’ I don't want any guns involved in this. It's a bad deal when guns get involved.”

“Not all the time.”

“All the time. Every single time. And just because you have to use a gun doesn't mean it's right. If you have to use a gun, something's gone wrong. If the idea includes a gun, it's a bad idea.”

“Sheriff, I don't think you're really looking at the whole situation here. It would be good for us to do something like this, to make people notice what a good job we're doing. This is an election year. And if you have to defend yourself, you must defend yourself. Remember Nauvoo.”

“And Mountain Meadows.”

“We have jobs, Sheriff. I want to keep mine.”

“And mine, too?”