oners and light out cross-country after a strike."

"I've been thinkin'--" Kirby was checking the loading of his Colts--"if
we start heah, we can sorta work our way in, coyote right up close to
Franklin. They'll be expectin' us to light out for the home range, not
go jinglin' in to wheah they've forted up. Might raise a sight of smoke
that way. Git Wilson's boys on the prod, for sure."

"Franklin--?" Croff repeated.

"Little below, maybe. From what that boy said, those bushwhackers move
around pretty free," Drew reminded him, certain the Cherokee was back to
the desire to search for Weatherby.

"We'll see what kind of luck we have along this road, Injun-scouted. You
take first watch, Injun?"

"Yeah." Drew heard rather than saw the Cherokee leave their camp, bound
for a lookout point. The other three bedded down, anxious to snatch as
much rest as possible.

Long before dawn they were on the move again, threading through the
winter-seared woods. Croff brought them out unerringly behind a sagging
rail fence well masked with the skeleton brush of the season. There was
equally good cover on the other side of the road. Kirby climbed the
fence, investigating a dark splotch on the surface of the lane.

"Fresh droppin's. Been a sight of trailin' 'long heah recent."

The rest was elementary. There was no need for orders. Croff and Webb
holed up on one side of the lane well apart; Drew and Kirby did the same
on the other. Waiting would be sheer boredom and in this weather the
height of discomfort.

The gray of early morning sharpened the land about them. Boyd would have
enjoyed this game of tweaking a wildcat's tail. Drew chewed his lower
lip, tasting the salt of sweat, the grit of road dust. Just now was no
time to think of Boyd; he must concentrate on the business before him.

He heard the sharp chittering of an aroused squirrel, repeated in two
shrill bursts. But his own ear close to the ground told him they were to
expect company. There was the regular thud of horses' hoofs, the sound
of mounts ridden in company and at an even pace. The only remaining
question was whether it was a Union patrol and small enough for the four
of them to handle.

One, two ... two more ... five of them, topping a small rise. A cavalry
patrol ... and the odds were not too impossible.

Drew sighted sergeant's stripes on the leader's jacket. It would depend
upon how alert that noncom was. Wilson was drawing in new levies, so
these men co