'We're going after them, then?'
"He only nodded.
"After breakfast I watched him clean and oil and reload his guns. I
didn't need to ask him if he expected to use them. I didn't need to urge
upon him Captain Neal's command.
"'Russ,' said Steele, 'we'll go in together. But before we get to town
I'll leave you and circle and come in at the back of the Hope So. You
hurry on ahead, post Morton and his men, get the lay of the gang, if
possible, and then be at the Hope So when I come in.'
"I didn't ask him if I had a free hand with my gun. I intended to have
that. We left camp and hurried toward town. It was near noon when we
separated.
"I came down the road, apparently from Sampson's ranch. There was a
crowd around the ruins of Steele's house. It was one heap of crumbled
'dobe bricks and burned logs, still hot and smoking. No attempt had been
made to dig into the ruins. The curious crowd was certain that Steele
lay buried under all that stuff. One feature of that night assault made
me ponder. Daylight discovered the bodies of three dead men, rustlers,
who had been killed, the report went out, by random shots. Other
participants in the affair had been wounded. I believed Morton and his
men, under cover of the darkness and in the melee, had sent in some
shots not calculated upon the program.
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