_This is what my Andy and Phil would have grown to look like._ The thought hurt Raoul because Andy and Phil were dead and because he had never really loved them. "What is it, Josiah?" "Someone rode up to Miz Hale's door and banged on it. I snuck right up to the fence. When they came out I saw it was that Woodrow kid that lives with her. And she got out her own horse and rode toward town with him." "Did you follow them?" "Long enough to see that they went up to old Mr. de Marion's place." "_He's_ there!" Raoul said. He felt as if he were out hunting on a frosty morning and had just sighted a buck with spreading antlers. He clenched his fist and brought it down on his desk, hard. He opened the drawer again, took out a small bag of coins and slammed the drawer shut. He counted out nine Spanish dollars. "Josiah, you divide these between the three of you for keeping good watch." He dropped a tenth piece of eight into the boy's cupped hands. "That's for you, for bringing me the good news." Josiah grinned, all teeth. "Thanks a heap, Mr. de Marion." "Armand, I want about twenty men. Go round them up. Have them meet me at the trading post gate." "Tres bon, mon colonel." Raoul thought a moment. He had planned to hang Auguste, but they couldn't leave a body around for the Regulators to find. "We'll take him out to the lead mine and finish him there. I know parts of that mine where nobody'll ever find anything." "Can I come, Mr. de Marion?" Josiah asked. The glow of admiration in his eyes warmed Raoul. Raoul gave the boy a grin. "Sure, Josiah. Bring your dad's rifle. I'll show you how Smith County takes care of its Indian problem." * * * * * "Do Nicole and Grandpapa know about us?" Auguste asked Nancy as they sat side by side on the split-rail fence Guichard had built around Elysee's garden. "I told Nicole," she said. "I was afraid she'd condemn me, but I had to confide in someone. She was very sweet to me about it, not a hint of reproach." "Nicole understands." His voice sounded choked. He didn't know how he knew Nicole that well--from glances, from hints in her voice perhaps--but he was sure that her own desires were as large as she was. And her generosity larger still. She would feel nothing but goodwill toward another woman's longing for a man. Nancy put her hand on Auguste's, and his breath quickened. Her face seemed to pull his eyes, and he saw, in the light of the waxing moon, that she was more beautiful tonight than he had ever seen her. Her cheeks were rounder now: he hadn't fully realized how haggard she had been as a captive of the Sauk. _We all looked like buzzards' meals. But even then I loved to look at her._