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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN  We rode back to Dodge through the downpour. I had my hat pulled low and my shoulders hunched. I was wearing my coat again, the one that now had a hole in the left pocket the size of a finger. “It’s sure not lettin’ up, Mr. Dillon,” said...

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN  Getting a fire started on dry grass isn’t all that hard, but it would have been easier if I’d had one of my father’s old flintlock muskets – we could have gotten a spark off of that, the way they did in the old days. But since there was...

CHAPTER SIXTEEN  It was pretty dark before we got close to Howard’s land. “It must be close to nine,” I said. “Hope they don’t jump the gun on us, Chester.” Chester thought about it for a second. “I figure that Jackson’ll stick by his word, Mr. Dillon.” “If...

CHAPTER FIFTEEN It was getting late. The summer sun was sinking, and we weren’t any closer to finding an answer. “I don’t know, Chester,” I said, flipping another page. “It’d take a man a year just to learn what these words mean.” Chester was frowning as he leaned...

CHAPTER FOURTEEN I cornered Mr. Pepper when he came out of the town hall and sent him off with Chester. Then I stopped by the Dodge House where Shiloh was staying and saw the hare that he and the kid had caught and skinned. I asked Shiloh if the kid could stay at the...

CHAPTER THIRTEEN  We were back in Dodge. It was almost one o’clock. I had eight hours to figure out a solution to Jackson and Howard’s spat, or else a range war would break out, with all the cowboys on one side and all the ranchers on the other. I’d been a part...

CHAPTER TWELVE “Ike Howard had no call to fence that pond there, Mr. Dillon. There’s enough water there for all the trail herds in the next ten years.” “It’s on his ranch, Chester,” I said. “He’s got a right to fence in his own range.” “A right, maybe,” said Chester,...

CHAPTER ELEVEN “Well, Clay was shot, all right,” said Doc, “but from the meat of the wound and the quagginess of the blood, I’d say it happened sometime the day before yesterday – the day of the robbery. I’d say the cashier’s bullet didn’t go wild after all.” That...

CHAPTER TEN The day was another scorcher. The drought out in the prairie was the worst I’d ever seen. Everybody in Dodge was a little edgy about a prairie fire, and I couldn’t blame them. All it would take was one fool with a cigar and the whole of Dodge could burn to...