Billy condo reined the stocking-legged bay to a halt in front of where Joe Metcalf sat smoking in the shade of a juniper and climbed down.
“You seem to move a lot easier today,” Metcalf grinned. “How you feelin’?”
“Better,” Billy said, sitting beside him and taking off his hat. “Most of the soreness is gone now.”
“I see you got both eyes open again.”
Billy laughed. “Yeah. Seems kinda funny, looking through two eyes instead of one. I’d got kinda used to it.”
Billy was squinting in the bright sunlight and looking out across the flat. A horseman had just come out of the timber along the creek.
“That looks like Thad Harper,” he said.
Joe looked up. “Wonder what he wants?” he said puzzled. “He’s supposed to be with Shorty and that bunch north of the river.”
“Maybe they got everything ro
