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After she sent the boys off, she came in here, fair bent to horsewhipping you, but when she found you stretched out on the floor, she helped me care for you instead."
    "So what happens the next time she sees me standing on my feet?"
    "You apologize. That's all that's needed."
    "Just what exactly did I say?" he asked doubtfully.
    "Well, you sorta called her a liar when she said she was sorry for what her boys did. Then you kinda said she used men to do the dirty work while she pretended innocence." He hesitated, looking a little down-faced. "Them was awful hard things to say to a woman you'd never seen before."
    "And?"
    "Well, you told her hell would freeze over before you let her have that deed."
    "And you figure an apology will take all that back? You better get me back to town before someone calls me out on it. Then you," he pointed at Hedges, "you can take that deed out to her, free and clear."
    "I was kinda hoping you'd hold off some on that."
    "No, I'm getting out of here before I get my tail in a worse crack than it already is. No more tricks, Hedges. I appreciate what you tried to do, even what you managed to do, but no more."
    Hedges nodded, as if he agreed, with his mind working as to what he could do to keep Gabe there.
     
    * * *
     
    One thing more Gabe could say about Hedges: he was the stubbornest man he had ever met. Gabe lay down to rest while Hedges went out to water the team before the trip back. When he woke up, Hedges was gone. Leaving a note saying he'd be back in plenty of time to get Gabe on the next stage out, if Gabe still wanted to go, and he may as well use the time to rest and think.
    That gave Gabe two choices. He could stay put to wait for him or hoof it ten miles back to town. Neither choice appealed to him.
    Hedges might think that fight would come to nothing, not Gabe. He'd insulted a woman and gone to blows with five men. The men he knew wouldn't let either just ride. Trouble was coming, and he didn't want anymore, not the kind that could bring. He had less to fight for here than he'd ever had at Crystal Creek Bluffs and no one here, except for maybe Hedges, would care if he did end up dead in the street. Crystal Creek—the people in it—had turned against him just like all the people he had called friends. Ollie, however, was the only one he knew of that had made any effort on his behalf that night.
    Still staying there for a day or two wouldn't be all that bad, except there was no food in the house and no furniture. The only blanket was the one on the pile of straw he'd been sleeping on. Most important of all, at least in Gabe's mind, he was too handy for those cowboys he'd locked horns with. Even if they had started it, he'd insulted their boss, and a woman at that. They were of a breed of men notorious for using their own brand of righting what they considered a wrong. From all Hedges told him, he'd been wrong. He had no call talking to any woman the way he had spoken to Little Sam.
    If they stuck to fists, they'd finish the beating they'd been interrupted in giving. If they decided fists were too easy for what he'd done, he didn't have any kind of weapon to protect himself. His pistol, the one thing he'd retained ownership of after that night in Crystal Creek, was packed away in a bag of a meager collection of charity clothes still in town. But good old Hedges had thought of all that. At dusk, a wagon pulled up, and the driver hailed the house.
    "Howdy," the man yelled when Gabe stepped to the door. "Hedges asked me to drop some things off for you."
    "All that?" Gabe asked, eyeing the full bed of the wagon dubiously.
    "Heck no, I'm the cook for the Rocking M. Most call me Biscuit. That's their grub for the next month."
    "Aren't you in the wrong camp?"
    "Huh? Oh, you mean that ruckus you had with Pierce. Naw, Little Sam said to forget it. It's her I answer to."
    "Meaning Pierce hasn't forgotten it?"
    "Nope, but then he's carrying a sight more to show he's been in a fight than you," the