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of the cobbler’s patch pile. She quickly donned the boots and did a little two-step to show her delight before asking the inevitable question. How had they managed it? They had no money.
    “We have money,” Frank said. “A little. Ira bought Bill and Bart. And the rig.”
    “But he didn’t want them.”
    “When Emmet and I told him what we’d do with the money, he changed his mind.”

Chapter 6

    Expecting to be assigned a nag ready to be turned out to pasture, Annie was thrilled when Ira led a paint mare out of the livery and said, “This is Shadow. She’s as kind as she is pretty. The perfect lady to carry you west.” He hitched the mare to a corral post as he talked. “You step on up and introduce yourself while I fetch the saddle and bridle.” He hesitated. “Your brothers said not to bother with a side saddle. That right?”
    Annie nodded.
    Ira went back into the livery and Annie stepped up to the mare. Her head, neck, and chest were black, save for a wide white strip down her face. A hank of white at the base of the otherwise-black mane accented white withers. Her legs and tail were white, her powerful haunches splashed with more black. When Annie murmured, “You’re a beauty,” the mare lowered her head and nuzzled Annie’s hand.
    Ira returned and set a beat-up saddle and a striped blanket on the ground. Annie said, “I didn’t expect anything this well broke.”
    “Just because she’s not half-wild doesn’t mean you should drop your guard,” Ira warned. “She loves to run.” He nodded toward the corral behind them. “If you’ve got things covered here, I’ll help the boys. We’ve got to get those ponies sorted into three strings. Three ponies each for your brothers and Jake to lead west.”
    Annie said that was fine and in a few moments she had Shadow saddled and the stirrups adjusted. Leading the mare to the mounting block, she slid into the saddle and quickly tucked her skirt about her legs. She sat for a moment, patting the mare’s neck and talking to her. It wasn’t until she’d reined about to watch the boys working that she really paid attention to the three horses that had already been saddled. A bay, a buckskin, and—
Outlaw
? It looked like Outlaw, but this horse was waiting quietly instead of spitting fire.
    Annie nudged Shadow closer to the corral where the men were working, taking care to leave a wide berth between herself and the black horse. When Frank looked her way, she nodded at Outlaw and called out, “You really think that’s a good idea?”
    “Nope,” he called back. “I think it’s a
great
idea.” As if to prove his point, he strode up to the black horse and patted its neck.
    Emmet spoke up. “I had doubts, too, but Frank’s put a lot of time into that horse in the past couple of weeks. The two of them get along all right.”
    This was no time to cause trouble. Annie reached down and patted Shadow’s neck again, then turned her attention to the action inside the corral. With Ira’s help, each man singled out the lead pony for each string. Once that horse was haltered and hitched to a corral pole, the second in the string was caught and brought up. Next came an ingenious use of rope and tail. Each rider ran his hand along the back of his lead horse, across the haunches, and down the tail, stopping at the end of the tailbone. That located, they folded the tip of the tail over the lead rope attached to the second pony’s halter. A few wraps about the tail, a half hitch, and the second horse was tied to the first’s tail. The knots were secure, and yet they could be released with a quick yank on the rightloop. After the final horse in each string was tied to the second in the same manner, Frank, Emmet, and Jake led their respective strings of three ponies out of the corral, mounted up, hitched the lead rope about the horn of their saddle, and were ready to go.
    Frank sidled up to Annie and Shadow. “Outlaw’s taken a shine to your horse. If you don’t