that

`` He killed Tom -- do you understand that ''??

The clouds parted and hard gashes of sunlight swooped down to stain the earth with streaks of white and gold light so that the shadows of the running horses flowed like dark streams over the dazzling snow.

he could feel more than hear the staccato beat of hoofs that fanned out across the prairie to the north.

With every leaping stride of the horse beneath him he crossed one more patch of earth that had been his, that he would never see again.

The Gap looming before him -- the place where had confronted Jack English on that day so many years ago -- was his exit from all that had meaning to him.

He was too old -- when he passed up and through the corridor of pines that lined the trail he could see ahead, he was passing from life.

Evidently this was a precaution so that mounts would be available in an emergency.

He was thinking that the way she had responded to his own kiss hadn't meant what he had believed it had.

`` Who's that ''??

`` Is that you, Bill ''??

But the luck that had been running their way left him.

They bawled questions that were not answered in the uproar.

Beyond the stockade rifles began to explode as some of the guerrillas fired at shadows that they imagined were Apaches.

Ducking inside, he found that three rifles were stacked in a corner.

One struck the muzzle of one of the rifles that projected from the shoulder pack.

The bullet had torn through the flesh just above the knee, inflicting an ugly gash that was forming a pool of blood on the floor.

Mike tested the leg and found that he was able to hobble around on it.

`` So it wasn't the earthquake that made him return to his village ''!!

`` Mr. Manuel did that in the war.

Mr. Manuel whispered in the ears of the Sioux that the Cheyennes were comin' to raid 'em for their horses.

Then he went on to the Cheyennes and told them that the Sioux was goin' to move up.

He did that with all the Nations.

I saw that letter.