f horses crunching fodder, hoofs rustling in
straw. Shadow turned her head and nickered as Drew came up to her box
stall. She was answered by a blowing from Shiloh, a bray out of Croaker.

"It's all right, girl--pretty lady--" Drew fondled her mane, stroked the
satin-smooth arch of neck. Callie dropped from his barrel perch.

"She sure is right purty, Mister Kirby. Mister Kells said as to tell you
he's sleepin' on a cot in th' tack room over there, should you be needin'
him." Callie pointed. "Me, I'm beddin' down in the last stall. I put your
gear up right over here, so's you can hear if she gits to movin'--"

"Thanks." Drew felt in a pocket, tossed Callie the coin his fingers found.

The boy caught the piece, his eyes round as he looked at it. "Lordy!
Thanks, Mister Kirby! You must be near as shiny as _Don_ Cazar--or Mister
Topham!"

"Shiny?"

Callie laughed. "Silver-shiny! Ain't too many men as goes round Tubacca
throwin' out good money thataway. 'Less it's ringin' down on th' bar, or
slidin' 'cross some table 'cause they found out as how they was holdin'
Jacks against some other fella's Kings. You want anything--you jus' holler,
Mister Kirby!"

"Mister?" Drew thought he did not have the advantage of Callie by more
than four or five years.

"Oh--Captain Kirby, maybe? Or Lieutenant? Johnny Shannon--now he was a
lieutenant with Howard's Rangers." Callie gave Drew a shrewd measuring
look.

"Sergeant." Drew corrected automatically and then asked: "How did you know
I'd been in the army?"

"Well, you wear them two shootin' irons army style, belted high an' butt
to front. Must use a flip-hand draw as do all th' hoss soldiers. Listen,
Mister Kirby, iffen you rode with th' Rebs, you better keep your lip
buttoned up when th' Blue Bellies hit town. There's been a pile of
fightin' an' folks is gittin' mad 'bout it--"

"Blue Bellies?" Drew was wrenched back months, a year, by that old army
slang. "Union troops stationed here?" He had unconsciously tensed, his
body responding nerve and muscle to past training and alarms. But there
were no Yanks or Rebs any more, no riders or marchers in blue and
gray--just United States troops.

"There's a garrison out to the Mesa camp. An' Cap'n Bayliss, he don't take
kindly to Rebs. You see, it's this way.... Out in th' breaks there's a
bunch of Rebs-leastways they claim as how they's Rebs--still holdin' out.
They hit an' run, raidin' ranches an' mines; they held up a coach a while