“Relieved.”
“Relieved?” James asked. “That you didn’t get killed?”
“No,” Thomas said, “relieved that I was so calm.”
“Well, I wasn’t,” James said. “I was scared out of my wits. Why were you calm?”
“Because I knew this day would come, and I prepared for it,” Thomas said. “And because I made every shot count. I did everything Pa ever taught us to do.”
“So did I,” James said. “I mean, I’m sure I missed a lot of shots, but I kept at it.”
“You did good, James,” Thomas said. “Pa said so.”
“What did you think of how I did, Thomas?”
Thomas put his hand on his younger brother’s shoulder and said, “You did great, and so did Matthew.”
“I was worried about Matthew,” James said.
“Yeah, I was too,” Thomas admitted. “He’s still not as sure about this as we are. I thought he might hesitate.”
“He didn’t, though,” James said. “He did fine.”
“Maybe this will convince him that what we’re doin’ is right,” Thomas said. “Maybe we’re all finally together on this.”
Matthew was very quiet as he and Shaye checked over the horses in the livery.
“We’re going to have to replace mine,” Shaye said. “I think he’s got some ligament damage in the left foreleg.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Matthew? Are you all right?”
“I’m fine, Pa.”
Shaye straightened and looked at his son. “Do you have something you want to talk about? Like what happened last night?”
“Last night…we didn’t have a choice,” Matthew said. “We did our jobs, I know that.”
“Then what’s bothering you?”
“I killed somebody,” Matthew said. “Lots of somebodies, I think. I—I just have a hard time accepting that.”
Shaye regarded his son sympathetically. Why was it that some of the biggest men—physically speaking—were also the gentlest?
“Matthew, I never expected you to follow in my footsteps,” Shaye said. “You’re not cut out to be a lawman.”
“I know that, Pa,” Matthew said. He looked down at the badge on his chest. “But I’ll wear this until we catch the men who killed Ma, and then…well, and then I don’t know what I’m gonna do. Thomas wants to be a lawman. So does James, I think. I’ll just…have to figure out what I want to do.”
Shaye clapped Matthew solidly on his broad back and said, “You’ll figure it out, Matthew. We’ll help you. Right now I need you to help me pick out a horse. All we’ve got to do is find the owner.”
Shaye and Matthew walked the four horses over to the sheriff’s office, where they met Thomas and James, who were carrying burlap sacks of supplies. Shaye had chosen a young steeldust to replace the horse with the ligament damage. They divvied up the supplies equally and hung bags from their saddlehorns, then went into the office to bid the sheriff good-bye.
“Ready to leave?” Holcomb asked.
“Moments away,” Shaye said.
Holcomb came around the desk and shook hands with all four of them.
“Again, I can’t thank you enough for what you did for the town…for me. I don’t know what I would have done—”
“You would have figured something out, Sheriff,” Shaye said.
“I wish you luck catching up to them,” the local lawman said. “I know how important this is to you…to all of you.”
“Thanks,” Shaye said. “They won’t get away from us. We’ll catch them.”
“If you catch up to them in this county,” Holcomb said to Shaye, “in my jurisdiction, you do what you have to do. Do you understand me?”
“I understand,” Shaye said. He stuck out his hand. “Thank you.”
Outside, they all mounted up, and James turned to his father. “Pa, did he mean what I think he meant?”
“He did.”
“What?” Matthew asked. “What did he mean?”
“He gave us permission to kill them,” Thomas said.
“He did?” Matthew looked at his father.
“Yes, Matthew,” Shaye said. “That’s what he was telling us.”
“But…he’s the law.”
Shaye reached out and touched his son’s shoulder. “He’s the law, but he knows what’s important, Matthew.”
“We all know what’s important, Pa,” James said.
Shaye could tell by the look on Matthew’s face that this wasn’t quite true.
“Don’t worry, Matthew,” he said. “It’ll be fine. I promise.”
“Okay, Pa.”
57
As they reached the outskirts of town, Shaye continued the lesson on tracking he had begun earlier.
“I’m no great tracker,” he said, “but if you keep your eyes open, the terrain will tell you when someone has already passed by.”
Thomas and James listened intently. Matthew, on the other hand, allowed his mind to wander. He was still thinking about the men he killed, and that he might still have to kill. His gentle spirit could not come to terms with the act of killing.
“We’ve also run into some luck,” Shaye said.
“What kind of luck, Pa?” James asked.
“Dismount, all of you.”
Thomas and James obeyed immediately. Matthew did not hear the order.
“Matthew!” James said, snapping his brother out of his reverie.
“Huh?”
“Dismount.”
“Oh, yeah, sure.”
When all three sons were dismounted, Shaye showed them the hoofprints on the ground. He went down to one knee, and they all joined him.
“See there?” he asked, pointing.
All three boys peered at the ground.
“What’s that?” Thomas asked. “There’s somethin’ inside that hoofprint.”
“Good eye, Thomas,” Shaye said.
“What is that?” James asked.
“I’m not sure,” Shaye said, “but something has either adhered to the hoof of this horse or something has caused a small amount of damage—not enough to make the horse lame, but enough to make the track unique.”
“So all we need to do is keep followin’ that track?” James asked.
“As long as the Langers, or whoever the horse belongs to, don’t notice that they’re leavin’ a unique trail.”
“What happens if they notice?” James asked.
“They could send the horse off on its own, leavin’ us to follow a false trail.”
“How can we know that?” Thomas asked.
“Well, if they send the horse off riderless, the print won’t be as deep—unless they take care to weigh the animal down.”
“There’s so much involved in this,” James said. “It’s more…exact than I ever thought.”
Thomas and James would pick this up quickly, Shaye knew. Matthew would have trouble with it, but it really didn’t matter. If he could help it, Matthew would never again be tracking outlaws after this was over.
“The problem is,” Shaye said, “it’s not exact. If we follow the wrong trail, we won’t even know it until we get there.”
“And then what?’ James asked. “What happens then?”
“Then we backtrack and start over again.”
“How many men have you tracked this way, Pa?” Thomas asked.
“More than a few.”
“And did you ever give up?” James asked.
“Oh yeah,” Shaye said. “Sometimes it can’t be helped, sometimes they get away.”
“And you accept that?” Thomas asked.
“As a lawman you do,” Shaye said, “because you know somewhere, sometime, another lawman will catch them…but this is different. As a husband—and as sons—we won’t give up. I don’t care how many times we have to backtrack and start again, we’ll catch these men.”
“But we had them,” Matthew said, shaking his head. “We had them, Pa, and we let them get away.”