The Old Man glared at Tom like he was going to hit him, then just shook his head. “You little turds. I wouldn't mind so much if you was to just go ahead and kill each other, except for the trouble and expense of burying you.”

The Old Man turned and strode off. Tom looked at John and just grinned. At that moment, John understood he had lost. He was the older brother, but he was going to spend the rest of his life doing what Tom wanted. Tom would figure stuff out, and John would be left to do it.

And that was the trouble. Tom was always figuring stuff out. This whole thing, the killing, the running, smelled like something Tom had cooked up. It didn't make sense any other way. John was not as smart as Tom, but he wasn't stupid, either. He didn't understand much about war, except there was one, but it was someplace else. Someplace over there. And he knew that he and Tom were expected to go, but they weren't going to go. The Old Man had said that when Thems came to Rattlesnake Canyon, Powers would fight for it. But the Power family would be damned in hell before they fought for England or France or any other people they didn't know and didn't give a damn about.

But that was no reason for the law to come after them, shooting. And the law had brought six hundred rounds of ammunition. It takes a long time to shoot up six hundred rounds. They had planned on a fight before they ever got to Rattlesnake Canyon, and they had planned on a long fight. He couldn't calculate why they planned on the fight. It didn't make any sense at all.

But Thomas “Kane” Wootan was in on it, and that made its own sense. Wootan was a cowboy, too, and the Power brothers and the Wootans kept getting thrown together. And lately Tom and Kane had been together more than usual, and that bothered John. Kane was trouble, even if Tom and his sister, Ola May, had favored Kane some. If Tom wasn't trying to kill Kane, he should have kept his distance from him. But they had been up to something together, Kane and Tom, and Kane was with the law when Thems came up Rattlesnake Canyon. However this ended, John was willing to bet big that Tom and Kane Wootan had a lot to do with how it got started.

Wootans and Powers weren't a good mix, though Tom and Kane kept getting themselves mixed together. Kane wanted what Tom wanted, easy money. And John knew easy money was always hard to come by. But Kane and Tom kept looking for some way to grab ahold of any money that could be the least bit loose.