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dismissed the matter from his thoughts.
    ‘I’m sure I was right,’ Elwood said. He pointed out the dead men, then the positions he’d identified as the source of the shooting. ‘Nine men hightailed it along Devil’s Canyon and I can count only eight here.’
    ‘Then where’s the last man?’ Shackleton asked, already having concluded who that man was.
    ‘Pablo ain’t no yellow-belly,’ Barney said, slipping closer. ‘So that means he’s hiding somewhere to surprise us when he can do the most damage.’
    ‘Then he’d better surprise us soon before we wipe everyone else out.’
    Barney and Elwood nodded. Then both men’s gazes rose to look up their side of the pass.
    Without further comment they slipped away from Kurt’s group. In the shadows they followed Elwood tohigher ground as he moved towards the position he would have taken if he had wanted to have the most devastating effect.
    They were halfway up the pass and had still seen no sign of Pablo, if he were here, when in a burst of recklessness the three men on the opposite side of the pass started firing rapidly. Then they moved to new positions while laying down such a frenetic volley of gunfire that Kurt’s group had no choice but to think of self-preservation and keep themselves down.
    When the gunfire stopped Kurt and his men rose as one, aiming to pick off any stragglers. At that moment a new volley of shots rang out, but this time they came from this side of the pass.
    One man cried out and stumbled forward, followed by a second and third.
    ‘Damn,’ Shackleton muttered as he discovered where Pablo had gone to ground in the worst possible way.
    The gunfire was coming from behind a tangle of rocks forty yards away. They veered off towards that position and when they’d halved the distance and the shooter swung into view, Shackleton saw that his attention was on the exposed men below as he aimed to inflict as much damage as he could.
    Shackleton gestured, directing Elwood and Barney to take a route towards him over higher ground while he took the more direct route. He gave them a few seconds’ start then made his way along, putting his faith in the man, presumably Pablo, keeping  his attention on the men below.
    He’d got to within ten yards of him when he saw Elwood and Barney bearing down on their target from behind. Elwood shook a fist in triumph, signifying he had a clear view of the man.
    Shackleton gestured at them to wait for him to get closer. When he’d taken another five paces the man stood again, aiming to blast gunfire at Kurt below. So Shackleton stopped, sighted the man’s chest and fired.
    Elwood and Barney loosed off shots a moment later. The gunfire slammed into the man’s chest and side and made him stand up straight before he keeled over, to lie sprawled over the boulder behind which he’d been hiding.
    Shackleton ran, reaching him just as Elwood and Barney leapt down. Shackleton and Elwood kept guns trained on the sprawled man while Barney skirted around the body, then slowly knelt on the boulder.
    Barney drew the gun from the body’s outstretched and limp hand, the motion dragging a pained grunt from the body. He tossed the gun aside, then he turned the body over.
    Shackleton’s only sighting of Pablo Rodriguez had been on a wanted poster, but this man was clearly him, and he was still alive.
    ‘Who’d have thought,’ Barney said, making to jump down, ‘that us three would catch the outlaw Pablo Rodriguez?’
    ‘That ain’t our job, Barney,’ Elwood said.
    ‘I know, but—’
    A gunshot blasted, making Barney cry out, then keel over. He hit the boulder on his side, then slid to the ground.
    ‘Stop that. It’s us!’ Shackleton shouted, judging that the other side of the pass was too far away to have delivered such an accurate and deadly shot. ‘We have Pablo.’
    He ventured to look down at Kurt’s position and sure enough Kurt was looking up at them with a gun brandished. Then he dismissed Kurt from his