Double The Bounty

Chapter XXIX

“What’s wrong?” Brent Foxx asked Brian.

They had paused to let the horses rest—at least, that was what Brian told Brent. What he really wanted to do was allow Brent to rest. They were four days out of Stillwell and had just crossed into Colorado, and Brent hadn’t once asked to rest. It would have been great to be able to think of the gesture as noble or courageous, but the pure fact of the matter was that Brent was too stubborn to admit he needed rest.

Now Brent saw Brian peering intently past him, back the way they had come.

“Somebody’s on our tail, Brent,” Brian said, squinting in an attempt to get a better look.

“Who?” Brent immediately thought of a posse from Stillwell.

“I don’t know. I can’t see very well, but from the amount of dust they’re raising I’d say two or three riders, maybe even more.”

“That’s too small for a posse.”

“A posse wouldn’t have followed us this far from Bell’s Crossing.”

Brent didn’t offer an opinion on that.

“What then?” he asked.

“I don’t know, but we’d better get a move on if we don’t want them to catch us.”

“I’m ready”

“Let’s go, then.”

They started off again, at an increased pace.

Two hours later they stopped again and Brian looked behind them. Brent didn’t turn in his saddle for fear of reopening his wound. Instead he turned his horse to face the opposite way.

“I don’t see anything.”

“They’re still there,” Brian said.

“Where?”

“Keep looking. See! See that dust?”

“I never was much good at this, Brian,” Brent said, shaking his head. “I’ll take your word for it that there’s someone there, but what do we do about it?”

“Let’s change direction,” Brian said. “We’ll travel south for a while, head toward New Mexico, and see if they stay on our tail.”

“And if they do?”

“We’ll have to shake them off.”

“I know a perfect way of doing that,” Brent said, touching his gun.

“We’d be outnumbered, Brent, and your hand is still a little unsteady, in case you haven’t noticed.”

Brent frowned and brought his hand up in front of his face where he could see it.

“I’m all right.”

“That’s right, you are. You managed to survive getting shot and you’re all right—and I want to keep both of us that way. We’ll try and shake them. That way we won’t have to face them.”

“Have it your way, brother,” Brent said. “You always do.”

But, Brent thought, things do have a way of changing.