or

No one walked in this country, least of all Ed Dow or Dutch Renfro or any of the rest of the Bar B crew.

They crawled through the north fence and came on toward him, and now he saw that both were young, not more than nineteen or twenty.

She didn't move or say anything.

Her eyes were glazed as if she didn't hear or even see him.

It looked as Gavin had first seen it years ago, on those nights when he slept alone by his campfire and waked suddenly to the hoot of an owl or the rustle of a blade of grass in the moon's wind -- a savage land, untenanted and brooding, too strong to be broken by the will of men.

He might say or do something foolish.

All were carrying guns they had seized up, but they were half-clad or hardly clad at all.

His looting of the orderly room had taken only a minute or two and the vicinity was still clear of guerrillas.

A bullet tore the earth from beneath his foot when he was a stride or two from safety.

Let Old Knife come up and kill you and your people, or would you steer him on someone else ''??

Some gracefully soared from the backs of their wounded, screaming mounts to make one last defiant charge before the lead split their hearts or tore their guts.

A red-tailed hawk flew in behind them and stayed there, watching for any snakes or rabbits that they might stir up from the side of the road.

I knew that three or four of them were almost always present in the hall, but what they were doing, and exactly where, I could not tell.

This light did not penetrate very far back into the hall, and my eyes were hindered rather than aided by the dim daylight entering through the fan vents when I tried to pick out whatever might be lying, or squatting, on the floor below.

We want him back there or we want him dead ''.

She would return this symbol to the mountain, as one pours seed back into the soil every Spring or as ancient fertility cults demand annual human sacrifice.

It did not care what sort of person prowled its woods, plucked at its bark or stripped the berries from its bushes.

Red man or white man, pacifist or killer, the forest would accept them all -- knowing that it could thrive equally well on slaughter and beneficence ; ;

The mountainside grew steeper and she slipped once or twice on the smooth pine needles.

Where before had she felt or dreamt or imagined such a scene??

Never, he'd once told Joyce, had he encountered any man or situation that called for a gun.

Now, are you going to take me or am I supposed to walk ''??