as not like other
killings. This was not some nameless Indian or some river rat knifed in
a taproom brawl. This was his brother's son. The people in this house
had loved Auguste.

He remembered, and it was like something breathing cold on his neck, the
fear he'd felt looking into Auguste's eyes at Fort Crawford. Medicine
man. Was there some way Auguste could hurt him? Could Auguste, even in
death, get at him?

Raoul shook himself, shook off the haunting, frightening thoughts like a
dog shaking off water.

He had never meant to shoot Auguste in front of witnesses. Now the
Regulators were coming and they'd find the body in the house, and him
with the smoke practically still twisting up from his pistol barrel. And
he wasn't ready to fight them. The trial wouldn't last even as long as
Auguste's had.

He had to go to ground somewhere until he could collect more men.

_The lead mine._

Even if they came there looking for him, he knew the mine so much better
than anyone in Smith County that they'd never find him. Only two or
three men who had worked the mine before the Indian war still lived in
Victor, and they would not help the Regulators. In fact, he was sure he
was the only one who knew about some parts of the mine.

"Speak to us, mon colonel!" Armand demanded. "Do we fight?"

"No," said Raoul. "They outnumber us."

He pulled Armand to the edge of the clearing around Elysee's little
house.

"I'm going to make a run. I can be out of the county by daybreak. I'll
come back in a couple of weeks, maybe a month. By that time things will
quiet down, and I'll bring with me the men we need to run these
Regulators out."

Let them think he was going to ride straight out of the county. Let the
Regulators chase him along the Checagou road, and the Galena road and
the Fort Armstrong road. Meanwhile, he'd hide out in the mine till they
quit looking for him. Then he'd leave the county. But it would be best
if no one at all knew exactly what he had planned.

"What will _we_ do, mon colonel?" There was accusation in Armand's eyes.
He probably felt Raoul was deserting them. What the hell did Armand
expect him to do? He was doing the best he could for them; if he led
them into a fight he'd only get them killed.

Like he'd gotten men killed at de Marion's Run and at the Bad Axe.

"For now, scatter. Deny you had any part in this. Wait for me to come
back."

"It will not go easy for us, mon colonel," Armand growled.

"I'll