Only 05 - Autumn Lover

only knee-high at the time, the boys would have lived if they hadn’t been too drunk to lift their faces out of the water.
    That left five of the Culpeppers who had been involved in the Texas massacre unaccounted for.
    “What happened to Ichabod and Jeremiah, and Parnel, Quincy, and Reginald?” Hunter asked.
    “Ichabod and Jeremiah drew cards in the wrong game down toward Spanish Forks.”
    Hunter’s black eyebrows rose.
    “The other three are still looking for Spanish treasure,” Case said.
    “Jeremiah was supposed to be greased lightning with his six-gun,” Hunter said neutrally.
    “So I hear,” Case said. “Ichabod was faster, though. He damn near got me.”
    Hunter whistled softly through his teeth.
    “Watch out, brother,” Hunter said. “You’ll get yourself a reputation as a gunslick. Then every kid with a six-gun and a yen to swagger will hunt you.”
    “Nobody knew me when I walked into that whiskey emporium. Nobody knew me when I walked out.”
    “Where was Ab?” Hunter asked.
    “Already headed for the Rubies.”
    For a moment Hunter studied the ragged patches of moonlight that made their way through the cottonwoods.
    “Ab, Erasmus, Gaylord, Horace, and Kester,” Huntersaid finally. “Any other raiders worth mentioning?”
    Case shrugged. “The rest of the men are all gun handy, when they’re sober, but nothing to keep a man awake nights worrying.”
    Hunter snorted. He couldn’t imagine anything that would keep Case awake nights worrying.
    “How many men do you have?” Case asked.
    “Seven, plus some cowhands. Eight, counting you.”
    “Almost four to one.”
    “That’s the way I figure it,” Hunter said.
    “Well,” Case drawled, “don’t count out Bill Moreland. He may look drunk, but that old boy is shrewd as a hungry bear.”
    “That son of a bitch has tried to kill Elyssa at least three times that I know of.”
    One of Case’s dark eyebrows rose. He whistled very softly through his teeth. Then he shook his head.
    “No,” Case said quietly.
    “What does that mean?”
    “Bill wouldn’t hurt his Sassy.”
    “The hell he wouldn’t. I saw him draw a bead on her with a gun!”
    “When?” Case asked.
    “Three nights ago.”
    “Then it wasn’t Bill.”
    “How can you be so damned certain?” Hunter asked angrily.
    “I played cards with him from sundown to dawn.”
    “But…”
    Case waited for Hunter to finish.
    “Damn!” Hunter said.
    “Something wrong?”
    “If it wasn’t Bill Moreland—”
    “It wasn’t,” Case interrupted.
    “—then there’s traitor on the Ladder S payroll.”
    “That’s what I’m figuring,” Case said.
    “What makes you say that?”
    “There’s a man out there somewhere who keeps bringing information to Ab and Gaylord.”
    “What kind of information?” Hunter asked.
    “How many hands the Ladder S has. How many of them are gunmen.”
    Hunter muttered something unpleasant.
    “How many cows you’ve collected,” Case continued neutrally, “what kind, and where they’re being held. How many mustangs.”
    A hissed word was Hunter’s only response.
    “How many branded horses,” Case said. “How many green-broke broncs. That kind of thing.”
    “The kind of thing you used to do during the war. Information.”
    Case nodded.
    “Damn!” Hunter muttered. “We’ve got enough going against us without having a spy in the bunkhouse.”
    “Was I you, I’d start dropping Culpeppers where I found them.”
    “Too dangerous. If we don’t get all of them at once, it will be Texas all over again. The survivors will kill every man within reach of their guns, rape and kill the women, poison the land, and set fire to anything that burns.”
    Case didn’t deny it. The Culpeppers had fully earned their reputation as ruthless, brutal raiders.
    “Then you’d better find your traitor and hang him,” Case said bluntly. “He knows too much.”
    Hunter didn’t say a word. He was thinking fast and hard.
    None of his thoughts brought comfort.
    Case waited for his brother to talk again. There was no impatience in Case as he stood there. Impatience meant that a person had a weakness—he was looking forward to something.
    After a few years of war, Case had looked forwardonly to going home to Texas. Then he had gone home and discovered that his beloved niece and nephew had been sold to Comancheros.
    After Case found what was left of Ted and little Em, he had stopped looking forward to anything at all.
    Even vengeance.
    To Case,