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do?”
    â€œBring him luck?” Clint said, hoping to take just a bit of the wind from Joseph’s sails.
    â€œThat’s right! And you know why?”
    Suddenly, Clint pulled back on Eclipse’s reins and held up his hand. Although Allison didn’t know quite what to make of that gesture, Ordell came up alongside her and brought her to a stop. Looking at the front of the line, he asked, “What do you see, Clint?”
    â€œThere’s a couple horses coming this way.”
    â€œAnyone you know?”
    â€œCan’t tell from here, but they’re riding just a little too quickly for my liking.”
    Ordell shielded the sun from his eyes and squinted down the path. He picked out the approaching riders easily and let out a slow, grumbling breath. “Looks like they might be coming from Westerlake.”
    â€œProbably.”
    â€œAnd when men like that are riding that fast, it’s safe to say they’re either after someone or someone’s after them.”
    Clint looked over to Ordell and nodded gravely. “Probably.”
    â€œWhat’s the matter?” Allison asked.
    Clint dug in his saddlebag and found his spyglass. “Might be nothing,” he said. Unfortunately, he couldn’t put much faith in those words once he got a look at the faces of those riders. “Still, you might want to head for those trees and wait for them to pass.”
    Although there were a couple bends in the trail ahead, the riders cut across them to charge directly at Clint and Ordell.
    â€œAll right,” Allison said. “We’ll go and wait.”
    Clint listened to make sure that she headed far enough away, but he didn’t watch her go. Instead, he kept his eyes on the approaching riders. He also patted the side of Eclipse’s saddle to make sure that his rifle was where it should be.
    â€œYou know these men?” Clint asked.
    â€œI was just about to ask you the same thing. Is my rifle ready to fire?”
    â€œSure, so long as you don’t mind blowing your hands off when the first round gets jammed in the barrel.”
    Ordell let out a snorting laugh. “Perfect.”
    â€œAny reason why they might be so anxious to greet us?”
    Shifting in his saddle, Ordell replied, “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”
    They didn’t have to wait long.
    The riders charged straight for them and didn’t slow down until they were about to stampede over both Clint and Ordell. As they pulled back on their reins, the riders circled around to close them in. All three of them had dirty faces and several day’s stubble on their chins. They also had plenty of guns strapped to their saddles as well as their hips.
    Although the men were dressed similarly to Ordell, their eyes were wilder and their faces were much smoother. All three of them were breathing almost as heavily as their horses and did so through slackly hanging jaws.
    The rider who’d come to a stop in front of Clint and Ordell was the first to speak. He did so through a mouth that was only slightly marred by a harelip. “Looks like you two’ve been busy.”
    â€œDo I know you men?” Clint asked.
    â€œAll you got know is that we’re the ones looking to cash in on the reward offered for that bear’s skin.”
    Ordell didn’t even blink. Instead, he gazed around as if in a daze and asked, “What bear?”

NINE
    Scowling, the first rider grabbed for the pistol that was tucked under the front of his belt. His two partners were quick to arm themselves within the next couple of heartbeats.
    â€œYou wanna play dumb with me?” the first rider snarled. “Then it’ll be the last mistake you ever make. That bear’s worth six hundred dollars, so unhitch it from your damn horse and ride away.”
    Clint turned slightly to look over at Ordell. “Six hundred dollars? Did you know that?”
    â€œI heard it was eight hundred.