A holdup in line for boarding the mule train had Chip shaking his head and me tapping my foot. Owl sneered and waved for the obstructing Dunbar to get to stepping.

  The deputy stood his ground with a dead serious stare. “Sheriff, give my pistol back. Somebody’s gotta keep the negro and Indian in line.”

  A blow from Owl sent the Texan bumping into the wagon. Owl declared, “I not like his spirit. We throw him out in plains.”

  Chip gripped what he could of the chief’s arm. “Look, your judgement is correct. He’s a bottom feeding, redneck loco, but a necessary one. Reason being, if the witch gets away from us, only he knows where her destination lies.”

  “Well,” Chief replied, as he hoisted the stunned Dunbar by the belt and straddled him over a wagon’s bottom windowsill. “I keep an eye on him.”

  The deputy flipped all the way inside to a thud. “Gawd dirn it.”

  “One more thing you need to know,” Chip said to Owl. “Some evangelist has preached that any law-and-order figures-- men like you and me--who go against this curse will perish. That only a certain young vaquero stands a shot.”

  Chief frowned. “I not law and order. Creator is. Light entities are. And I not really have anything left to come back to. Many of my tribesmen very angry with me for joining posse. They hear me wailing in tears every night after my son get killed, but they no understand. They no believe the Ana beasts can be defeated. Them stubborn warriors have no faith. They say I betray them by joining you, but that not the case. I only hear Taiowa loud and clear. I must stop witch from tilting balance of the West.”

  Chip said, “Owl, I had to disclose what that preacher said. I know nothing will deter you— Wait? What in dad’s name?”

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Owl and I turned to the direction that caught Chip’s eye. A golden radiance was a-bobbing up on us—turned out to be a glowing bow and arrow that gave a view of the one holding it, Laughing Heart. She was guffawing in a fit. Chief joined her with thunderous chuckling and shook her by the shoulders. Hardly able to catch his breath, he said, “What’s this bow?”

  “A gift from Taiowa,” she said.

  The size of his hand swallowed half Laughing Heart’s back. The revelation seemed to have turned him somber. He observed its markings, the number eight and a star. “I remember now. This weapon—Taiowa come to me in dream with, years ago. Tell me that it can stop my son’s shadow.”

  Before Big Owl got in the vehicle with his new weapon to harass Dunbar with, he thanked Laughing Heart and told us he provided the muleskinners with direction to the Garden Cemetery. We would get there before tomorrow’s sundown.

  Chip and I took a separate wagon from the one Chief and Dunbar got in.

  Inside ours, Diamond was already snoring on the bench. When plopping down beside her, Chip took uncharacteristic consideration to be quiet. Over in the corner, the mule man, Charlie Bass lay propped against the wall.

  Chip glanced at Diamond then grinned at me, baboon charm starting to grow. I returned the gesture.

  “She sleeps like a lion, doesn’t she?” He laughed.

  “Poor gal’s been through it,” I replied.

  The wagon taking off caused Diamond to swing toward the sheriff. He threw his arm around her to soften the impact. On his chest, she rested, and he lay his head on hers. Shortly after, he drowned out her snoring with his own.

  My tired body wanted to collapse, but I held together, hand on knee. Felt a-stir in my heart for the sleeping sheriff and Diamond and all they a-hoped for. It was impossible to obtain.

  Stroking goatee, thoughts of unnecessary aid I was there to administer pestered, but those wagon wheels weren’t spinning backwards. Even if I jumped out, I had nowhere to go. We’d gotten too far out in the plains.

  My gaze shifted to Charlie. His cowboy hat drooping over his eyes and mustache over his mouth left me guessing whether he was asleep or awake. Regardless, I made an inquiry. “Say, you’re a wise man. What do you make of this dark magic, the witch, the strange creatures?”

  Slow drawl drifting, few words would come before shuteye took him. However, he offered one statement. “There’s an old adage. It goes, ‘Thinking themselves to be wise, they became fools.’ Wisdom aint got nothing to do with the evil happening in our world.”