Nick put on a friendly smile and shook Bryce’s hand. “We’re not exactly here about the jobs, so does that mean we’re not lucky?”
“Uh…no. What are you here for?” Bryce asked as he nervously glanced from Nick to Joseph.
“We’re here to collect the women and bring them back to San Trista,” Nick said.
“Ain’t no women here. Hasn’t been for a day or two.”
“Other camp’s having all the fun?”
Although the man nodded, he didn’t seem at all happy about it.
“There’s something else you might want to know. Fella by the name of George asked me to pass it along.”
“Let’s hear it,” Bryce said.
Ignoring the man’s request, Nick looked over Bryce’s shoulder at the fire. “You still got some of that coffee I smell?”
Raising his voice to make sure the men behind him could hear, Bryce said, “If you can smell it, I’m surprised you want it.”
One of the men still seated by the fire flipped a rude gesture over his shoulder and grunted, “Kiss my ass, Bryce.”
“If I don’t get something in my gut soon, I’m about to fall off this horse,” Nick said as he casually surveyed the camp.
“Sure. Come on over.”
Nick climbed down from his saddle and nodded toward Joseph to do the same. As he walked over to the fire, Nick counted up the men he could see as well as what kind of guns they were carrying.
“Your partner don’t have much to say,” Bryce said as he squatted down next to the fire and used a dented kettle to fill two equally dented cups.
“I’m not supposed to talk,” Joseph muttered.
Two of the other men sitting at the fire laughed at that. One of them said, “We keep telling that to Bryce, but he don’t listen.”
Bryce rolled his eyes and handed Nick and Joseph each a cup of coffee. The brew tasted every bit as bad as it smelled.
“You want some food?” Bryce asked. “I think there’s still some stew around here somewheres.”
Nick sipped the coffee and shook his head as the bitter sludge went down his throat. “Thanks, but no.”
Bryce sat down and rubbed his hands together next to the fire. “So what’s the word from Georgie?”
“There’s been some law dogs poking around, asking about stolen cattle being driven across state lines. You’re supposed to head for an old fort southeast of here.”
That caught all the men’s attention. They shifted so they could each look at Nick’s face. “What?” Bryce said.
“George and the other one in town already headed over there. He was in a rush, so he made sure I knew your signal so I could tell you where to meet up with the others.”
“The law ain’t been a concern for Dutch before,” Bryce said.
Joseph lowered his coffee cup and quickly added, “There’re Federals with this bunch. A cavalry unit meant to trap rustlers trying to slip out of Texas.”
“God dammit,” one of the other men said before he was silenced by a quick wave from Bryce.
“One of Dutch’s men was just here. How come he didn’t tell us about this?”
“Because he didn’t know about it,” Nick replied. “This is the first place we stopped.”
Bryce reflexively glanced in the direction that Bill had ridden only a few minutes ago. He then looked south toward the other camp. When he shifted his eyes back to Nick, he was nodding slowly. “What’s this fort you’re talking about?”
“It’s not far from here, but it should put you well out of that posse’s way.” As he spoke, Nick could see Bryce shifting more and more. His eyes wouldn’t stay still and he hardly looked at Nick directly.
“And you’re sure them laws don’t know about it?”
Feeling Bryce’s growing nervousness, Nick kept talking until it seemed Bryce was about to bust. “If they do, you men should be able to handle them. It is a damn fort, after all. Look, we’re just the messengers. We’re going to the other camp and tell them the same thing. We can come through here on our way back to let you know what they said, but don’t expect us to waste too much time. Those whores need to get back.”
Joseph raised his eyebrows and looked over at Nick. “They could stay here if they want, but I don’t want to meet up with all them Federals. Not if these are the boys they’re after.”
“I’ll go with you to talk to Dutch,” Bryce finally said.
Nick sipped his coffee as if he was sitting on a veranda. Keeping his cup up to his mouth, he shrugged and said, “If you want. The more I think of it, though, the more I like the idea of trading lead with that posse. Those sons of bitches killed a dozen men last time they rode through here.”
“Just a dozen?” Joseph asked. “I know more than twenty holes in the ground that were filled by them Federals.”
After listening to that, Bryce was more than anxious to leave.
Twenty minutes later, Nick and Joseph were halfway between the two camps, dragging Bryce’s unconscious body into some bushes.
“You think those men will miss our friend here?” Joseph asked.
Nick laughed and lobbed Bryce’s gun into the shadows. “Are you joking? Those men were wound so tight, they’ll be a mess by the time we get there.” Pulling himself onto Kazys’s back, he added, “All we’ll need to do is say that Dutch told them to follow us and they’ll do it. Just mentioning a blood-hungry posse was enough to make a few of them twitch.”
Joseph climbed into his saddle and shook his head. “If I didn’t know any better, I would have sworn you were enjoying yourself.”
The grin on Nick’s face was plain enough to see.
TWENTY-NINE
“You sure that other camp is up ahead?” Joseph asked.
“That’s what Bryce told me. I guess I should ask for that fellow Bertram. His name came up a few times.”
Joseph nodded and rode ahead into the shadows. The landscape had thinned out to more desert than trees, reminding him of the open spaces that had surrounded his own ranch. It was easier to think of his place as simply gone rather than how it was when he’d last seen it. Picturing those charred frames and trampled grounds only made it harder for him to stand patiently at Nick’s side when he did his fast-talking.
The moment they glimpsed the fires of the second camp, both men saw there was a difference between it and the other one.
“That camp’s bigger,” Joseph said. “A lot bigger.”
“Yeah,” Nick replied. “It sure is. I’d say double the size of the other one. Maybe more.”
“Two of them are headed this way.”
Nick patted the modified Schofield strapped across his belly. “I see ’em.”
“You think you can talk your way through this?”
“I can give it a try. If not, be ready.”
Joseph gave a quick nod rather than say anything out loud. The approaching pair of riders was already close enough for them to be heard over the rumble of the horses’ hooves.
The moment Nick picked up the motion of the men reaching for their guns, he whistled the signal as clearly as he could. Although the men eased up a little bit, they kept their hands near their weapons.
“Who the hell are you two?” the first man asked as he came to a stop directly in front of Nick.
“We just rode in from San Trista to pick up the girls that were brought here. They’re due back in town. We stopped at the other camp and were told to pass along a message to you fellas.”
The second rider stopped in front of Joseph and said, “Who sent the message?”
“His name’s Bryce,” Nick said. “He told us to let out those whistles so you wouldn’t gun us down.”