“Come on, Sheriff. We're going to have a good time. A hot time. They're going to get about all that's coming to them.”

“And that would be what?”

“All we can give them. All they deserve. Same thing. You know they got it coming, especially that weasel Tom Power. He's going to be one sorry son of a bitch come soon enough.”

McBride spurred his horse away from Wootan and up to Mart Kempton. “I don't like this one bit,” he said. “They're drunk and spoiling for a fight. I'm calling this off.”

“Don't do that, Sheriff. We can handle this. You and me. Those two are still passing that bottle between them. By the time we make the mine, they'll be ready to pass out. You and I can take the Power boys, and Haynes and Wootan will have to see if they have the nerve to take credit for it. This is the reelection, right here. Tomorrow, we'll be heroes.”

“It's a bad deal, Mart. Powers got the high ground, and they know the area. If these two do end up passed out and it comes to shooting, we're outgunned. There's nothing good about this.”

“We're making good time. We can get there before daylight and take them while they're sleeping. You and I will be the only ones alert. We have surprise on our side.”

“Surprise can cut both ways, and it can cut deep.”

“Come on, Sheriff. This is our big chance. We're going to be famous. We're going to be the top lawmen in the state, and think of what we'll have over Haynes the next time he tries to push his weight around. We have to do this, Sheriff. We have to do it.”

They crossed the creek again, gaining its left side. Haynes stopped, and so did the rest. Haynes turned his horse and came back. “We need to go on foot a bit.” He nodded his head. “The Garden is a few hundred yards ahead. They could be there. We don't know. We should lead the horses up just a bit and tie them and go on our own until we see if they're there. Kane, you go on up to the cabin and take a look.”

“I thought they were at the mine,” Kempton said. Haynes gave him a contemptuous glare.

“Probably they are,” McBride said, “but we can't be sure. If they've come down for a bit, we don't want to get surprised.”

“That's right,” Haynes said. “Surprising them is good. Them surprising us is bad.”

It was farther than Haynes had led them to believe. Power Garden stood at 5,800 feet, and they were climbing forty feet or so every hundred yards, walking and stumbling in the dark.

“There's good water over that way, quarter of a mile or so, but there's a nice spring up at the Garden where we can water the horses when Kane gets back,” Haynes said when the canopy of trees had begun to thin.