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Peabody pays us all off. You’ll be able to buy the best whores money can buy . . . even the expensive ones in San Francisco.”
    â€œYeah,” Dalton said, not able to hide his great disappointment.
    â€œAll right, then,” Holt told them. “As for Fiona, from the look of her right now, you’d have to pay me to fuck her.”
    It was meant as a joke and it went over well. Dalton and Eli guffawed and poked each other in the ribs, they were laughing so damned hard. Fiona just stared down at Joe and tried not to look even more ashamed than she felt. But deep inside, she knew that Ransom Holt had just eliminated one of her worst nightmares. She doubted that Joe could have endured being shackled and helpless while she was being raped all the way across Utah and Nevada.
    â€œNow,” Holt said, “let’s talk about what we need in the way of provisions so we can get moving toward a big pay-day. First, we’ll need a buckboard and a team of at least four good horses or mules. Also, I want a mattress for Joe Moss to lie on while—”
    â€œA gawddamn mattress?” Eli cried in protest. “What the hell are we gonna let him ride on a mattress for!”
    â€œSo a long, rough trail in a buckboard doesn’t open up those big holes in the front and back of his shoulder causing him to bleed to death,” Holt explained.
    Dalton and Eli both swore, but they could see the rationale for having a mattress under the badly wounded prisoner.
    â€œThe other things we need are food and supplies,” Holt was telling them. “Lots of salt pork and beans, coffee, more ammunition in case we do have a problem with the Paiutes, and any other damn thing you can think of, including a few bottles of decent whiskey.”
    â€œI like that,” Dalton said, licking his lips. “You frontin’ the money for all this, boss?”
    â€œWell, I know that you boys sure don’t have any money, so I guess I’m stuck for it,” Holt told them. “But you’d better be sharp about buying, and don’t spend my money on liquor or women.”
    â€œWouldn’t think of that, now would we, Dalton?”
    Dalton cackled. “Hell, no! We wouldn’t dare waste any of the boss’s money.”
    â€œSee that you don’t,” Holt warned. “Because if you do, I’ll take it out of your hides.”
    The brothers stopped their cackling and Eli asked, “How far do you reckon it is to Virginia City on the Comstock?”
    Holt had a ready answer. “It’s almost six hundred miles between where we’re standing now and where Peabody is waiting to pay us all that gold. We’ll be real lucky to make twenty or twenty-five miles a day with a buckboard, so that means the very best we can do is three weeks, but it’s more likely it’ll take a month of hard traveling.”
    Dalton and Eli considered those numbers, and reluctantly nodded their heads in agreement. “Sounds about right,” the brothers both said.
    â€œThat’s a mighty long ways,” Dalton said. “We’re gonna need a heap of supplies.”
    Holt dragged out a wallet and started counting green-backs. He finished and handed Eli two hundred dollars. “And I’ll want a written receipt for every damn dollar you spend.”
    â€œHow about lettin’ us have a little fun before we come back?” Dalton pleaded. “A few shots of whiskey. A woman for each of us.”
    â€œNo,” Holt said, eyes hard on the brothers. “Not one drop of whiskey and not one poke in a whore either. I want you to ride north to a little town called Placerville. I’ve been there before and the man at the general store is named Wakefield. Bert Wakefield.”
    â€œHe your friend?”
    Holt shook his head. “Let’s just say that Bert knows better than to overcharge or cheat me. And I’m going to write out a list of supplies, and