“Yeah, that female fiddler! Where is she?”
“I heard somebody stole her.”
“Oh, yuh did, eh? I reckon yuh didn’t need to hear it. Some of you boys lift him on a horse. We’ll take him along with us and settle his case at the Two Bar X.”
They lifted Buck Priest to a saddle, and he cursed them for hurting his broken leg. Perhaps they were none too gentle.
“Want to rope him on, Park?” asked one of the men.
“What for? If he falls off he can’t run away, can he?”
Two of the cowboys rode double and one of them led Buck Priest’s horse. The jolting of the horse was misery to Priest, but he clamped his jaws tightly and held all his weight on his right stirrup.
The first faint touch of dawn streaked the old pole corrals and the stables of the Two Bar X. Huddled in a chair beside the table in the main room sat June Meline, wrapped in a blanket, asleep. At one of the front windows stood Jack Silver. He had watched all night for the return of Bell, who he was sure would come back. The body of McLeese still lay where it fell.
He turned his head and saw June looking at him. She had slept for several hours.