Free Billy the Kid by Theodore Taylor

blue scar on his left shoulder.
    She went on, "How about one in this side, Willis? Or maybe one right here in the middle. A nice, clean widow-maker like Metcalf got."
    Willie wasn't really listening. He studied her and then said, "Kate, Billy was one of them. He's robbing now."
    Kate was stunned. Her hand dropped limply to her side. The strength seemed to drain from her. Barely audible, she said, "I don't believe it."
    "Neither did I. But Jack Lapham saw him. I've got to take Jack's word. He knows Billy too well to make that kind of mistake."
    Kate shook her head, still refusing to believe it. "Billy's in Mexico. In Durango! That last letter..."
    "...was a year ago."
    Kate backed up to the bed and sat down, lowering the liniment bottle. She'd always had mixed feelings about Billy Bonney. He was a romantic threat while Willis was courting her, an uncomfortable presence the week he'd stayed at the ranch after the wedding. Still, it was hard not to like him. But a holdup? It didn't seem possible.
    Willie began donning a woolen shirt. It would be cold in the Verdes Mountains, and on down into the Ben Moores. "He got on at Wickenburg with another man; posed as a deputy." Willie laughed hollowly. "Sounds like Billy, doesn't it?"
    Kate sat shaking her head. "And he'd have to pick these hills? You might know, he'd have to do it here."
    "He knows most every rock, creek, and hill of it," Willie said, lifting a poncho off a peg, then moving to the corner of the room for his bedroll.
    "Doesn't he also know you're the sheriff?"
    "He's been out of touch. I'll have to ask him—if I can catch him."
    He started for the front door and Kate fell in behind. Near the door, a strange look on her face, she said, "I hope you don't catch him."
    Willie was startled. It wasn't the proper thing for a sheriff's wife to say, even if she thought it.
    Kate read his eyes and clarified softly, "For your sake. He's a better shot."
    Willie had been thinking of that, off and on. "You don't have to remind me," he replied, then moved a step to kiss her.
    They clung together silently and then Kate murmured, "I nip at you, stick pins in you, rub sand in your craw, but I do love you and worry. I want you to know that, Willis."
    He responded by placing his cheek fiercely against hers, and then went out into the night to join Big Eye and the other trackers.

9

    UNDER THE NOON SUN , walking gingerly, leading the listless bell mare, Billy came out of the arroyo, surprised to find an adobe tucked in the lee of its two hills. He wasn't familiar with this area.
    He made a reconnaissance on the crude one-room shelter, wondering what it was doing out there at the end of the narrow rock cut. It squatted in brown silence, fenced by ragged lengths of ocotillo. There was some sparse green around it, a few willows, some cactus. It was neat and spoke of a woman's hand. There was a pigpen, a few scrawny chickens, and a cooking oven in the yard. A wash line was anchored to a willow and ran to the adobe corner. There was probably a well nearby.
    Edgy and tired, he stood another moment gazing back north to the low bluffs on either side of the arroyo. He'd awakened before dawn to start off again; he guessed he'd made about twenty-five miles in the dragging hours since then. He wasn't certain, though. The arroyo had been protective but slow going.
    He believed he had a two- to three-hour lead on Art, if the Texan was still of mind to track. Even if they'd left Joe behind, which was doubtful, they wouldn't have traveled all night with the wounded boy, he reasoned. Yet there was no way of knowing what Art was thinking or doing. From what little Billy knew of him, he wasn't apt to give up easily.
    Suddenly, Billy was aware of eyes. He looked around. An attractive dark-haired woman had moved into the doorway of the adobe and was watching him with curiosity. She did not seem frightened. She looked to be in her early thirties.
    Billy smiled at her and called out, "Spare some water?"
    She