Read To Reap and to Sow for Free Online Page B

than the two shapes behind.
    From what he’d seen, Clint could tell the two riders were following pretty closely in his own path. That gave Clint an idea as to what he should look for. As luck would have it, he only had to ride another quarter of a mile or so before he found it.
    Directly in front of Clint, a dirty rock lay slightly to the left and a thick tree stump with a splintered top sprung up to the right. Doing his best to alter his course without being too obvious, Clint pointed Eclipse toward the rock and snapped the reins.
    The Darley Arabian was going so fast that the rock and the stump sped up on him within seconds. At the last moment, Clint gave the reins a little pull to the right and Eclipse veered slightly in that direction. They came so close to the rock that Clint was surprised he didn’t feel it brush past his foot. The stump was a little farther off than he’d hoped, but he figured it would still do the trick.
    Clint turned in his saddle to take another look behind him. Sure enough, the two who had been following were racing up at what had to be the fastest their horses could go. As Clint watched, they reached the rock and steered around it. One of them went left and the other went right. The one who went right had to think awfully quickly once he saw the stump threatening to send his horse to the dirt.
    The rider pulled back on his reins hard enough to cause his horse to rear up and pump its front legs into the air. Clint grinned as he and the second rider left that one behind in a matter of seconds.
    Spotting a group of trees, Clint steered toward them and hoped the remaining rider cared enough about his partner to hang back at least for a few seconds to see if the man was all right. Clint made it to the trees, which were just thick enough for Eclipse to stand behind.
    â€œHe’ll catch us,” Lynn whispered.
    â€œMaybe,” Clint replied. “Maybe not.”
    â€œAt least get the rifle ready. If Mark follows us this far, I want to be the one to—”
    But the rest of Lynn’s threat was swallowed up by the rumble of hooves as they pounded against the ground less than fifteen yards away from them. Although the horse got fairly close, it kept moving and faded away before closing in on them completely.
    When Lynn opened her eyes, she found Clint looking at her with a wide smile on his face. She looked back to the trail behind them, but couldn’t see much through the trees. She looked to either side and saw nothing. When she looked ahead, she saw the dust that had been kicked up by the rider as he had raced past them.
    â€œHow’d you know he would do that?” she asked.
    â€œI didn’t.”
    â€œYou what?”
    Clint shrugged and asked, “Would you have believed me if I’d told you I knew what would happen?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œThen take your good luck when you can get it,” Clint said as he snapped his reins and got Eclipse moving away from the trees in a direction other than the one the rider had taken. “Any self-respecting faro cheat would know that much.”

TEN
    Despite the confidence Clint showed as he sat upright in the saddle and tossed a few boasts back toward Lynn, he was surprised that the two riders didn’t show themselves for the rest of the day. He was even more surprised when he spent the entire next day without seeing so much as a hint of them.
    Shaking the riders off his trail had been a fun diversion from a boring ride. His blood was racing for the rest of the day, which had turned to an uncomfortable anxiousness soon after. When they made camp, Clint took extra care to find spots that wouldn’t be easily attacked. He stayed up as long as he could to keep watch and slept with one eye open just in case the riders decided to pay him a visit.
    But they didn’t get any visitors.
    As they closed in on the neatly arranged streets and storefronts that were Thickett, Lynn began to act as if some of