Meline almost screamed. He got to his feet and glared down at Baldy.
“You lost all that stuff, Kern?”
“Yeah.”
“My God!” Meline looked foolishly around. “It—it was a fortune.”
“Damn near misfortune,” said Kohler. “An inch nearer and I wouldn’t ’a’ had any face left.”
“Same here, and I’m ribless,” complained Horan.
“Well, well!” said Meline nervously. “Tell me about it.”
“There ain’t much to tell,” said Kern. “We got the stuff from Guadalupe and had it packed. We muffled the horses’ hoofs and took the trail that Guadalupe picked out. Everythin’ was fine until a little ways this side of the border, where we runs into an ambush.
“They downed my horse the first shot and the pack animal got away. I managed to get up behind Jack, but we didn’t have a chance. They were in the brush, where we couldn’t see ’em, and we were out in the open. We got away—thassall.”
“And they got the packhorse, did they?” Meline paced the floor nervously. “Got away with a fortune!”