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ride with, leastways if they was to clean up decent. If it wasn’t for my mama, you wouldn’t last a minute in a room with me.”
    Only sheer determination prevented the judge from tossing down his whiskey, just as Hamby had before him. He wondered how many of the dark stains on Ned’s filthy clothing were from blood.
    A thin trickle of sweat rolled down Cameron’s back, between his shoulder blades. Had he overestimated his hold on Hamby? Would this reeking, ignorant pawn pull out some hidden weapon and cut him down just as he was about to clear the way to a fortune beyond anything the Senator would expect?
    Hamby’s lethal expression softened, transforming his face into one that could have belonged to a feed store clerk or a young wrangler . “But that ain’t all I want. I want somethin’ fine like you have, somethin’ I can take back home and show what I’ve done with my life. Maybe I’ll just take that fancy pocket watch you’re wearin’.”
    Cameron placed a protective hand over his gold watch . Strange, how Hamby had settled on it, just the way that Cameron had first noticed the mayor’s gold watch long ago. Ward’s watch had been the first thing he had saved for when he’d started making money. Despite his concern about Ned’s threat, he’d be damned if he gave it up. But he understood Hamby’s longing. He understood it well.
    “I’ll order you a brand new pocket watch,” he offered.
    “A gold one. I want a gold one just like yours.”
    “I’ll even have your initials engraved inside the cover.”
    “That ain’t all, Judge. I wanta hear that promise one more time.”  The threat of violence once more edged Hamby’s voice.
    “I’ve given you my word already.”  If he showed his fear now, he would lose control . At all costs, he mustn’t lose control.
    “Say it, Cameron . . . say it,” said Hamby.
    With those final words, the balance shifted, and Ward knew the prestige of position and possessions had worked their magic one more time. He smiled his condescension on the younger man. “Certainly. You have my word, Ned, that once my situation becomes stable, you’ll be financially rewarde d ”
    “  The rest. Tell me the rest.”
    Cameron nodded and settled himself into the padded chair . His words sounded as magnanimous as if he really meant them. “Patience. As I’ve told you, I’ll arrange your amnesty. You can return to Texas, see your mother. No one will ever come for you. Her slumber will never be disturbed by lawmen pounding on her door or the news that you’ve been gunned down by a bounty hunter. You’ll receive the second chance that you deserve.”
    Hamby released a pent-up breath in a sigh that gusted like a cold wind through the treetops . “I’m gonna prove to her I ain’t no no ‘count after all.”
    “All you have to do is help me with those Navajo . . . and one more small thing.”
    Suspicion hardened Hamby’s features once again. “No tricks. No tricks or I swear I’l l ”
    Ward’s hand waved dismissively . “ It’s nothing, nothing really. Listen, Ned. I can see you have a fondness for good whiskey. I had this shipped at great expense from Tennessee. How about I send you along with a full bottle? Just for checking to see if there’s a white woman living up in Canyon Sangre de Cristo.”
    “And if we find her?”
    “Then I’ll send whoever makes her disappear five hundred dollars — and a case of this fine whiskey so you can celebrate in style."
    *     *     *
    Hamby secured the bottle of fine whiskey inside his brand new bedroll. New to him, anyway. He’d gotten it, along with the tack and the horse beneath it, off of the late Sheriff Ryan.
    Thinking of the way the judge had treated him, he wished he had the dead sheriff’s scalp to drop on top of Cameron’s precious “furniture.”  But moments after Hop shot Ryan, Ned had spotted Indians approaching, and the whole gang had gone in pursuit . Never did catch up with those