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and a flannel shirt. The butt of a revolver stuck up from an old holster attached to a gun belt around her waist.
    Chance said, “Why in blazes would anybody want to wreck you? That doesn’t even make any sense.”
    â€œIt does if you work for Samuel Eagleton,” the driver said. “Emily, put down that gun. These men don’t mean us any harm.”
    â€œWell, if that turns out not to be true, it’s on your head, Bess,” Emily muttered. She lowered the shotgun until the barrels were pointed at the floorboards of the driver’s box.
    Ace and Chance eased their horses forward. The two young women watched them closely but didn’t seem spooked, even after that harrowing run down the mountainside. Both of them were so self-possessed, Ace had a feeling it would take a great deal to spook them.
    He reached up and tugged on his hat brim. “My name is Ace Jensen, ladies. This is my brother Chance.”
    â€œAce and Chance?” Emily repeated, a look of amused disbelief on her face. “Really? Those are your names?”
    â€œWell . . . that’s what we’re called, anyway.” Both brothers knew their real names, of course, but Doc had always called them by the nicknames he had given them and that was how they had thought of themselves ever since they were old enough to understand such things.
    â€œThose are perfectly good names,” Bess said. “I’m Bess Corcoran, and this is my sister Emily.”
    â€œA pair of brothers and a pair of sisters,” Chance said. “That’s mighty cozy.”
    â€œNo, it ain’t,” Emily snapped. “And don’t go thinkin’ it is, Jensen. Now, if we’re all through jawin’, my sister and I have a schedule to keep. The Corcoran Stage Line has the mail contract between Palisade and Bleak Creek, and the government’s a mite picky about things like bein’ reliable and prompt.”
    Ace had already noticed the Corcoran name painted on one of the stagecoach’s doors. “You ladies own the stage line?”
    â€œOur pa does,” Bess said. “We just work for him.”
    â€œBecause nobody else will do it,” Emily said with a bitter note in her voice. “Eagleton’s scared off everybody else with his hired guns.”
    Chance said, “From the sound of it, I don’t like this Eagleton fella, and I never even met the gent.”
    â€œYou will if you go on to Palisade,” Bess said. “He owns practically everything in and around the town.”
    â€œExcept the stage line,” Ace guessed. He was starting to see how things were laid out.
    â€œAnd a few other small businesses,” Bess agreed with a nod. “He’ll get around to the others sooner or later, I suppose. Right now, he’s got his eyes set on our father’s operation.”
    Chance pointed up at the pass. “So this Palisade place is higher up in the mountains?”
    â€œThat’s right. It’s a mining town, and I suppose it’s no surprise Mr. Eagleton owns just about everything, since he’s the one who made the first strike around here. There wouldn’t be a settlement if it wasn’t for him and his mine.”
    Emily said, “That doesn’t give him the right to run roughshod over everybody who came after him.”
    â€œNo, it doesn’t,” Ace agreed. “And you’re headed for someplace called Bleak Creek?”
    â€œThat’s right,” Bess said. “It’s on the other side of those mountains to the east. There’s a railroad spur there that connects up with the Union Pacific. We deliver the mail there and pick up any mail bound for Palisade.”
    Emily regarded the Jensen brothers with a suspicious glare. “You boys are mighty curious about our business.”
    â€œYou have to be curious to learn anything,” Chance pointed out.
    Ace said, “I was just wondering about Eagleton. If he sent