Free Taggart (1959) by Louis L'amour

it was rarely that he encountered suc h a problem as Taggart offered.
    Not many outlaws would have taken off alone into Apache country. Shoyer felt sur e he would find Taggart dead, mutilated, and perhaps beyond identification.
    He had lost the trail first when Taggart doubled back through Horsethief Canyon , and he lost it again at the Agua Fria, but he had no idea of giving up: five thousan d was the biggest reward he had ever gone after. By the time he discovered that Taggar t was heading east into the heart of Apache country, he knew the man he followed wa s not an ordinary outlaw, nor an ordinary man.
    When Pete Shoyer left his lookout near Squaw Peak he rode south for Globe.
    But he would be back.

    Chapter Six.
    S wante Taggart awakened suddenly in the dark near the stable door and he lay still , his hand on his gun, listening.
    Then he heard a door open slightly. Someone came out and started toward the spring.
    He listened and heard a faint rustle of skirts.
    With sudden embarrassment he realized that in washing the night before, and drinking , he had all but emptied the water bucket and had not refilled it.
    He got to his feet and stepped out into the starlit night. For a moment he stoo d still, testing the night for other sounds, and then after a glance toward the canyo n mouth, he started after the girl who had gone for water.
    He heard the gulp of the bucket as it took up water, and the falling drops as i t was lifted clear, then emptied. Whoever it was, wished to get the bucket thoroughl y wet to keep the water cool ... and then he heard water running into the bucket fro m the spring itself.
    "I'll carry that," he said. "I should have filled it last night." "You were tired," s aid Miriam. "Why don't you rest?" "Not in me, I guess. I'm an early riser."
    They stood alone in the darkness, each conscious of the other, each uncertain wha t to say.
    "Does he begin work early?"
    "Adam? He tries to get to the mine while it is still dark so he will not be see n moving about. It is something we live with here ... we try to keep from being seen , or leaving tracks, so we move around as little as possible."
    "But you live off the country?"
    "Connie knows the plants ... at least many of them. We use what we can to help wit h what we brought along. Up the canyon there are some benches that are thickly grown , and on the mountainside above us ... we're careful."
    "She's Indian?"
    "Mexican ... but she grew up with Apaches. She knows them, and she's afraid of them."
    He lifted the bucket from the rock and they started back to the cabin. "I'll sta y on," he said. "My horse needs a rest." "And then?"
    "Who knows? Maybe I'll ride out of here for Morenci like I planned, but I might tur n back to the west. With a man like Pete Shoyer you have to figure mighty careful.
    He reads a sign like an Apache, and he reads the mind of the man he's chasing. Onc e you establish a pattern of escape, he'll have it, and he's got you. A man who's runnin g away will nearly always, somewhere along the line, try to double back. He knows that.
    Most times when a man goes into the water to leave no tracks, he'll come out on th e same side he goes in."
    "I don't see why that should be."
    "Neither do I, but it works out that way. So a man on the dodge, he has to out-gues s the man on his trail. One time you do it one way, another time another way. Mos t of all, a man shouldn't try to move fast ... he should think his way through, d o the unexpected several times, then the expected."
    "It sounds complicated."
    They paused at the door, neither anxious to end this brief exchange, a man and a woman together, standing close in the darkness.
    She spoke in a whisper. "What you said about Tom Sanifer ... was that true?"
    "Heard it coming across country. Heard it again in Crown King ... stories like tha t get around. I'd say it was true." "You mustn't say anything about it.... We didn' t know, Connie and I."
    "Story has it a woman was involved."
    She looked down at