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you’d better not add nor subtract anything from it.”
    â€œHow many bottles of hooch?”
    â€œFour,” Holt said.
    â€œFour?” the brothers cried. Dalton said, “Why, that pitiful amount of whiskey won’t keep our gullets wet even past the Great Salt Lake!”
    â€œAll right,” Holt said, already having decided that he would let them beat him up to six bottles. “Buy a half dozen.”
    â€œWhat about tobacco?”
    â€œBuy a pound of it for yourselves,” Holt said.
    â€œAnd some licorice?”
    â€œHell, no!” Holt roared. “Dammit, I won’t be bled to death buyin’ you sorry sonofabitches candy!”
    â€œAll right!” Eli said. “No candy. No women. No whiskey in Placerville. Anything else we shouldn’t do?”
    â€œDon’t take your time,” Holt told them. “I want you boys back here with the supplies loaded in a good buckboard with a mattress and four strong horses in three days or less.”
    â€œDon’t think two hundred will buy all you’re askin’ for,” Eli told him.
    â€œIt will,” Holt said. “Make sure of it.”
    The brothers nodded and turned away to get their horses.
    â€œWhat happens here during the next three days?” Fiona asked.
    Holt looked at her. “Nothing except you get your man ready for traveling.”
    â€œI don’t even have any medicines or clean bandages.”
    â€œBoil some rags and find some grease or fat. I don’t care. Just get Joe Moss ready to go.”
    Fiona nodded. “It’s a long, dangerous road to Virginia City. Lots of desert and Paiute Indians and not much water.”
    â€œSo why are you telling me what I already know?” the big man asked.
    â€œI just wanted to warn you,” Fiona said. “There’s a good chance that we could be killed by the Indians or die of thirst.”
    â€œLet me be the one to worry about that,” Holt told her. “You just get Joe Moss healthy enough to ride in a buckboard for six hundred miles.”
    Fiona turned back to her man and smoothed his brow as Holt went off to write his supply list. “Joe, Joe,” she crooned softly. “I know you can’t hear me right now, but we’re in a terrible fix.”
    One of Joe’s eyelids popped open and he even managed a weak smile before he whispered. “Don’t you worry, little darlin’. We’re gonna kill Holt and be ready for them other two bastards when they come back with a wagon and supplies.”
    Fiona was astonished! She could hardly believe that her husband was awake and aware. Suddenly, she felt as if a terrible weight had been lifted from her thin shoulders.
    â€œYes,” she whispered, squeezing Joe’s pale hand for all she was worth. “We’ll kill him and then we’ll kill the other two!”
    â€œThey’re as good as dead right now,” Joe softly told her, closing his eye and drifting back to sleep.

5
    AFTER THE BROTHERS had left for Placerville, Fiona tried to appear busy and defeated. She knew that her Joe was drifting in and out of sleep and that he was in no condition to try to kill Ransom Holt just yet. But if he had three days before the brothers returned with a wagon and supplies, well, maybe Joe could sit up and use a gun or even his knife to catch Holt by surprise and kill him quick.
    And I can help Joe do that, she told herself. I can help him kill that big man, and then we’ll deal with the brothers when they ride up on the wagon. Afterward, we’ll use all those supplies and horses to take us to Virginia City to collect our daughter, Jessica .
    Â 
    â€œSo how is Joe doing?” Holt asked her the second day. “Any sign that your husband is coming around?”
    â€œNot yet,” Fiona lied. “Joe lost so much blood, he might stay unconscious for another day or two.”
    â€œThat doesn’t sound right to me,”