Chapter One The Returning Cavalryman

"You can live." Hope flashed in the man's eyes. Then Jack smashed the revolver butt across his nose. "Live and carry a message." Jack stood. "Tell Elias Crowe the Walker family is not dead." He looked at the other two. The tall man trembled over his wrist. The younger one bled from the shoulder. Jack did not kill them. He needed the news to spread. In the West, fear traveled faster than telegraph wire. The three hired guns dragged themselves into their saddles and fled the ranch. When the final light died, their shapes looked like insects swallowed by the plain. Jack returned to his mother's grave and buried William's copper spur beside the marker. "I'll find him," he said. "And I'll find them." Night dropped over the ranch.