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nce to surrender.  T ell your men the instant they go for their weapons to open up.”
    Assistant Chief Dunlap gave a slight chuckle.  “I’ll tell them, but that warning really isn’t necessary.”
    “ How long before you can get men ready to ride?” Man asked.
    “Not long.  I’ll send somebody to advis e Chief Kincaid.  I expect he’ ll want to be in on this.  He has been catching thu nder from the executives at Gem Mine.  I know he’s anxious for this to be over.”
    ***
    Bob was nervous.  S omething was wrong.  “I ha ve a bad feeling,” he said.
    “Me , too,” Al agreed.  “I think we were tailed by those m arshals.  I kept looking back, but I didn’ t see anybody.  But, i f they were back there, why haven’t they made their move?”
    “If they were tailing us and spotted our camp, they went into town for reinforcements ,” Bob speculated .  “ That would be h ow they would handle it.  That’ s the way I would if I was them.”
    “What do we do?” Alejandro asked.
    “We get our rear in gear and get the hell out of here before the thundering herd of policemen are pointing rifles at us from behind every tree.”
    Al ran to br ing the mules and hitched them to the wagon while Bob was busy loading their belongings .  He tied Al’s horse to the back of the wagon and mounted his.  Al jumped in the seat and followed Bob as he led the way to a main road to camoufla ge the tracks in with the other tracks .
    As soon as they were well away from the campsite, Bob veered close to the wagon.  “I had a thought.  It’ll be a long winter in a hideout somewhere.  We have adequate supplies without having to go into a town.  You know, having a woman along for company and to do the cooking would be nice.”
    “What are you saying?” Al asked.
    “We drop by and take Lucille with us.  I know the two boys will be there, but they never carry a weapon and I doubt they know how to use one with any proficiency.  We tie them up, load her and her things into the wagon , and we’ll be on our way.  It wouldn’t take more than a few minutes.  We can tie her in the back of the wagon and gag her u ntil we’ re out of hearing range.”
    “That’s kidnapping,” Al said.
    “So what,” Bob countered.  “If we’re arrested we’ll have no chance after what we did to Highsmith.  They can only hang us once.   Think how nice it will be to have a woman in our bed s this winter.  Next spring when it’s time for us to go back to work, we take her to the nearest town and turn her loose.”
    “She’ll tell them we kidnapped her,” Al put in.
    “They’ll know that already, unless we kill the two boys and I’m not that low.  Besides, if we killed them, she would fight us to the last breath.  If she isn’t cooperative, I’ll tell her I’m going to kill them.  That worked before with her.”
    Bob turned his horse toward the road where Lucille lived and Al followed in the wagon.
    Bob pulled his horse to a stop when he saw her home.  “A buggy is parked in front.  Who the hell could that be?” he said toward his horse’s head .
    “I don’t know.  Do we go on?” Al asked.
    “Yea h , I want her,” Bob said as he pulled his pistol and checked the load.
    Al did the same .
    “Bring rope to tie them,” Bob ordered. They stepped down and went to the door with pistols drawn.  “You take the boys, I’ll take whoever is in the buggy,” Bob said.
    He shoved the door open and lunged inside.  Cliff Landers grabbed for his pistol, but Bob was too fast and brought the barrel of his pistol down on Cliff ’s head.  He slumped to the floor.
    Roy and Dan were on their feet, but Al had h is pistol aimed at them.  “Sit back down,” he demanded.  They complied with the barked order.
    Bob went to Lucille.  She hadn’t uttered a sound, but fear masked her face.  He turned her around, tied her hands behind her back, stuffed a rag in her mouth, and secured it.  Al was busy tying the two boys