Vengeance Creek: The Sons of Daniel Shaye

38

In the morning, Thomas decided to start the day by introducing James and Rigoberto to Dave Macky. This way, at least they all knew they were riding with a professional.

“I am impressed,” Colon said, after “Ralph Cory’s” real identity was revealed.

“Don’t be,” Cory said.

“And what do we call you, now that we know who you are?” James asked.

The answer was the same one Thomas had gotten during the night.

“Just call me Ralph,” Cory said. “That’s the name I answer to.”

“Now that we’ve got that settled,” Thomas said, “let’s break camp and get movin’. Ralph, you’ll take point again. Berto, you ride drag.”

“Sí, mi jefe.”

As they collected their gear and saddled their horses, James said to Thomas, “I feel odd.”

“About what?”

“Us bein’ in charge when we got Bloody Dave Macky riding with us.”

“He’s not Macky, James,” Thomas said. “He’s Ralph Cory. Let’s try to remember that.”

“But Macky, he’s a legend.”

“Remember what Pa told us about him bein’ Shay Daniels?” Thomas asked. “If we allow him to leave that in the past we got to allow Ralph Cory the same thing.”

“I can’t believe Pa knew about him and never told us.”

“Pa doesn’t tell us everything, James,” Thomas said, “and we don’t tell him everything.”

As Thomas led his horse away, James called after him, “Hey, what are we keepin’ from Pa?”

With the campfire stamped cold, the members of the four man posse mounted up and headed off single file in the direction of the tracks. They rode in silence for some time, each apparently alone with his own thoughts.

About midday Cory called a halt to their progress and once again dismounted to inspect the ground.

“Rigoberto?” he called. “You want to have a look?”

Colon handed the reins of his horse to James, dismounted and walked over to where Cory was crouched.

The two men examined the tracks left by three horses, exchanged a few words, then stood up and faced the two young deputies.

“We’re agreed that we think we’ll catch up to the third man before he catches up to the first two.”

“That’s not who we want,” James protested. “He wasn’t in the bank when the people were killed.”

“If we run him down first,” Colon said, “we will not have much choice, Deputy. We cannot just let him go.”

“Berto is right, James,” Thomas said. “We’re gonna have to take them as they come.”

“Then will one of us have to take him back to town?” James asked. “I don’t want it to be me, Thomas.”

“I don’t see any reason why we couldn’t keep him with us,” Cory said, before Thomas could reply. “He might come in handy predicting where the other two might go.”

“Why don’t we deal with that if and when it happens,” Thomas said. “Right now whataya all say we keep movin’.”

“You two are in charge,” Cory said.

He and Colon mounted up. James handed Colon back his reins, and Thomas did the same for Cory.

“We do have something to secure these men with when we catch up to them, don’t we?” Cory asked.

“Um, we can tie them up.”

“No chains? Or manacles?” Cory asked.

“Sorry.”

“That’s okay,” the ex-bounty hunter said, patting his saddlebags. “I have my own.”