Four Corner’s protectors watched the man pick up some keys and then head out the front door. Chris raised his right eyebrow.

The two men followed the sheriff along the street and towards the outskirts of town.

Vin grabbed a hold of the man’s arm. "Where exactly are you taking us?"

"Relax. We’re here. You are a suspicious one aren’t you?"

Vin released the man’s arm and eyed the dilapidated building in front of him. It was made of stone. The walls were crumbling, the structure looking as though it could collapse at any moment.

"The prisoners are in the basement."

Vin followed the sheriff in, Chris pausing to check the street behind them. Few, if any people were watching. But good old Buck had followed, and was on duty on the other side of the street.

"Basement," Chris mouthed to his friend.

Buck nodded and then settled himself leaning against the wall of an abandoned building. To his right, Ezra settled himself at the mouth of an alley. To his left, Nathan seated himself on a barrel. Further down the street, Josiah and J.D. had found strategic places to keep an eye on their quietly spoken tracker. Each and every one of them were there to ensure that everyone in Milton knew, Vin Tanner was not fair game.

Chris made eye contact with each of them. He had told them to go to the saloon and relax and they had chosen to mind Vin’s back. Yep. He was riding with some good men. No doubt the very thought of a nice cold....or even warm whisky was making their mouth’s drool.

Turning, Chris entered the decayed structure that had swallowed Vin only seconds earlier. It took the gunfighter’s eyes a few seconds to adjust to the dimmed light, but he quickly spotted the stairs leading to the basement. Striding over to them, he listened for sign of life below. What greeted him was the muffled sound of men yelling threats.

Vin was waiting at the bottom of the stairs for his friend. He was confident that he was in no danger in Milton, but then, Vin Tanner hadn’t survived having a bounty on his head for so long by taking unnecessary chances. When Chris arrived the two fell into stride, side by side and for the first time, Vin reflected on the fact that since he had met Larabee, he had never entered any situation alone. Whether he wanted him there or not, Chris had always been at his side.

As the two came to the end of the room, they found that the sheriff had lit two large torches that were casting shadows over the damp, dank basement. In the corner was a crude cell. Clearly this was not the first time the basement had been used to house prisoners.

Sitting on the floor of the cell, chained hand and foot, were three men.

"You dogs are going to die for this! I swear that your bones will be picked by vultures before you reach the prison!"

Vin Tanner stepped forward and then, without warning, he launched himself at Sheriff Long, slamming the other man against the wall.

"You bastard. That’s Mindez!"

"That’s right!" the sheriff squeaked. Vin stared at him and realized that Long was not responsible for prisoner’s identity. Releasing the man, Vin let out a string of curses that caused Chris’ left eyebrow to arch.

"Those double crossing, pigsbreath, asshole, sonofbitch, shit spinning..." Both the sheriff and Chris waited for the explosion to die away.

"I take it you know one of the prisoners?" Larabee inquired.

Vin glared at his leader, glanced back at the prisoners who had begun to yell threats again and then cast his eye at the sheriff. Without warning, the tracker grabbed his leader by the arm and yanked him back out of earshot of the sheriff and the prisoners.

"That’s Juan Mindez!!" When Chris’ face failed to show any recognition, Vin exploded into another frustrated string of curses. "Dammit, Chris, ain’t you heard of him? You must of?!"

"No."

"That ass kissing Gilroy knew exactly what he was getting us into. Sonofabitch palmed this off on us without tellin us what the #%&*! we were gettin’ ourselves into. I knew I shoulda listened to my instincts. I knew that the whole deal was #%&*!..."

Chris roughly placed a hand on his friend’s arm. He needed to know what the hell was going on and Vin was so angry that he was failing to make sense. "Vin! Who is this, Mindez?"

"#%&*! it all to hell, ain’t you heard of the Mexican Desperadoes?!"

Larabee’s face darkened. Oh, yes. Them he had heard of. A group of Mexican bandits that had crossed the border and been running amuck in Texas for the last two years. More to the point, a group of over thirty five Mexican bandits who killed when the mood took them. No one had been able to bring them in. The rangers couldn’t seem to catch up with them. The army had tired and failed.

"You’re saying that our three prisoners are members of the Desperadoes?"

At this, a smile of anger plastered itself on Vin’s dark face. "No. Two of them is. The other fella, the one making all the threats is Mindez. He’s their #%&*! leader!!" Chris stared at Vin, realizing that his young friend had a better grasp of the situation than he did.

"Lay it out for me, Vin," Larabee ordered quietly.

"He’s like their king, Chris. They’ll do anything to get him back. I reckon they’d even attack a full army regiment, which is why those cowardly bastards palmed this off on us."

Sheriff Long approached the pair. "Mindez was arrested a week ago. By accident actually. He and those two were on their own and making a fuss in one of the towns near here and so the sheriff arrested them. Stupid bastard had no idea of who he had and would have released Mindez the next morning once he and his two men had sobered up, but some interfering marshal was in town, recognized Mindez and insisted on wiring the army. Next thing you know, I’m told that they’re being secretly transferred here and I’ve gotta hide them and wait for the army to pick them up."

"Has there been any sign of his men?" Vin demanded.

Long nodded. "Oh, yeah. They’ve been searching every town from here to Australia. Eight of them rode into Milton yesterday. They’re still here letting their presence be felt. Making threats. I’ve heard that most of the rest of the band are camped in the town where Mindez was arrested. Stripped the place. Killed or drove everyone out."

"How far away is that?" Chris asked.

"About half a day’s ride."

Taking a deep breath, Vin turned to his friend. "The army palmed this off on us because they knew that if they rode in here, Mindez’s men would know he was here. Those cowardly curs hired seven men to a job that they felt fifty couldn’t do!" Vin paused and reined in his temper. Being angry wasn’t going to change the situation he realized. "What the hell are we gonna do, Chris?"

Larabee glanced at the prisoners and then looked at the sheriff. "You’re sure that no one knows Mindez is here?"

"If they knew, I’d be dead and his men would be here and probably killing everyone in sight. Actually, probably the only reason the eight that are here ain’t caused any trouble is because of the number of gunfighters in town at the moment. I mean my citizens are made up of the toughest bastards around and they would fight back if the Desperadoes started anything and then it would be a blood bath.......Look, you are gonna take them, aren’t you? I mean, it’s only a matter of time before his men......" Long’s eyes pleaded with Larabee.

Chris turned to Vin. "We’ll have to wait til dark and then sneak them out."

Tanner nodded. "What about Mrs. Phillips?"

"Damn!" Chris cursed. He knew that the woman would somehow be trouble. "We can’t leave her here. We’ll have to take her with us and drop her at...where did you say?"

"Tentafield. But that’s over two days ride, Chris."

"We ain’t got any choice, have we, pard?"

Vin started shaking his head. "Dammit. I knew we shouldn’t have trusted the army."

Half an hour later..........

"So let me see if I have everything straight?" Ezra asked, his voice oozing with sarcasm. "We have traveled five days to pick up three prisoners that need to be transported to Vetten prison, a nice short, four days ride from here. The three prisoners are, in actual fact, members of the Desperadoes who delight in raping and pillaging every person and town they see. And not only that, one of the prisoners is actually the leader of this delightful group of men, a group who will do anything, including skinning us alive, in order to get him back. There are eight of his charming men in town searching for him and another thirty-five odd waiting patiently less then half a day’s ride away. We have the company of a lady who, outside of making a play for both Mr. Larabee and Mr. Tanner, for I do believe that she really doesn’t care which one she snares for a husband, yes outside of that, she rides as well and as fast as my great grandmother and cooks as well as my horse. We also have two bounty hunters on our trial, who probably have not attacked us yet because they were waiting until we’re preoccupied with escorting our prisoners........... and on top of everything else, we have got four days on the trail ahead of us, looking over our shoulder for bounty hunters, Mrs. Phillips in-laws and perhaps even these Desperadoes that have been terrorizing this area of Texas for two years. Have I missed anything?"

"No, Ez. I think you summed things up beautifully," Buck stated.

"Am I the only person here, who thinks that this is an abominable situation?" Ezra asked, looking at the relatively calm faces staring back at him.

"A what?" J.D. asked.

"Abominable. Believe me, Dr. Dunne, it is the perfect word."

"Abomom...." Vin started. Words intrigued the young tracker and the tenor of this particular one was fascinating.

"Abominable," Ezra repeated slowly.

"And what does that mean, Ez?" Vin asked quietly.

Ezra realized immediately that Vin was not poking fun. The gambler understood his friend’s thirst of literary knowledge. Ever since the day he had laughed at the tracker when Vin had come to him and asked him to write down his poem, Ezra had been trying to make it up to Vin. "Abominable means abhorrent, nefarious, contemptible, offensive, despicable, atrocious...."

"We don’t have time for this," Nathan interrupted.

"Yes, well, as I was saying. Am I the only one who thinks that this is an abominable situation?" No one attempted to reply. "As the army, for want of sounding common, ‘dropped us in it’, then I say we wire them and invite them to handle this amusing situation themselves."

"The bottom line is, we can’t leave Mindez here, Ezra. There are too many lives at stake," Vin murmured.

"Too many lives! You can’t tell me that you are worried about the miscreants in the town?"

"We’ll be staying until about ten o’clock tonight. Give us a chance to listen to any rumors and then sneak out in the darkness," Chris explained.

"So, I take it that my suggestion to wire the army has been over-ruled?"

"Until then," Chris continued, ignoring Ezra, "I reckon we can afford to go to the saloon and relax for a few hours."

"Now that is the best suggestion I’ve heard all day," Buck exclaimed standing up. "Come on, J.D. You can buy me a drink."

"Why the hell should I buy you a drink?" Chris watched the two of them disappear arguing playfully.

Nathan and Josiah too headed for the door. "Come on, Brother Ezra. You look like you need a brandy."

"A double, if you don’t mind, Mr. Sanchez."

"Chris, you want me to stay here and keep watch on the prisoners?" Vin asked, inclining his head toward the stairs.

"Isn’t necessary. Mindez has been held here for over a week. He’s safe and sound until we need him. Come on, let’s get a drink. It’s gonna be our last chance to relax for the next four days."

Vin nodded. "I want to check on Peso. You go ahead."

Chris Larabee’s eyes darkened.

"Chris, everyone in town knows that I’m with the six of you. News like that has a way of traveling real fast in a place like this. You’re one scary bastard, Chris. No bounty hunter is gonna lay a hand on me." The young man was smiling. "You go on. I won’t be more than a few minutes."

"Good. Then it won’t take us long."

Vin shook his head and resigned himself to the fact that Larabee was going to chaperone him everywhere he went while he was in Texas. Hell, he felt tired. The bug that had been afflicting him for the past few days seemed to taking it's toll all of the sudden, but now certainly wasn't the time to mention that he felt like laying down and sleeping for a week. As a matter of fact, sleeping was not going to be something any of the boys would enjoy for some time, the young man realized.

Chris stopped at the door of the livery and turned to scan the street. "I’ll wait here. Don’t want anyone sneaking up on us."

Vin shook his head and grinned. He was very grateful, but was sure that by ten o’clock, he’d be wanting to kill his over protective friend.

***********

"Just relax and drink your whisky," Larry ordered.

"Yeah, but we know that ‘they’re’ here," Morgan growled, inclining his head toward Buck and J.D. who had seated themsleves at a corner table and were enjoying a luke warm drink , "which means ....."

"Which means he’s still walking around with a couple of them and this ain’t the sort of place where ...."

"Dammit to hell, it’s the perfect place. Who’s gonna even batter an eye if we shoot the bastard and haul his carcass off to collect our money?"

"Look, we wait. Once they got their prisoners, they aren’t gonna be watching so closely."

His brother growled his discontent.

"I know this ain’t what we was hoping for, but let’s face it, if we collect on this one, we can take a real good long vacation. No chasing all over the country side after some half starved bartard running from us."

"Alright. I’ll wait. But I tell ya, my finger’s getting real ichy."

"Then scratch it, but don’t do anything else. Got it!"

Across the room, Ezra, Josiah and Nathan entered the saloon to be greeted by Buck’s loud, uncontained laugher. He spotted his companions and signalled them over.

"So how long has you been here, John?"

"Almost nine months," John Larkum laughed. Larkum was seated with Buck and J.D. The salutation between he and the Seven’s scoundrel had been noisy and boistrous.

So, Chris with you?" the slim man inquired, watching as the other three men drew up seats.

"That he is. Should be along shortly."

"And how do you two know each other?" Nathan asked.

"Well, old Buck and I was working for the same fella some years back."

"Yep," Buck agreed. "And we both had our eye on this very appealing girl."

"Only problem was, she was the daughter of the man we was working for."

"Course, once her daddy found out, we was both fired and ended up riding together for a couple of months."

"Oh...my...God!" J.D. gasped. His companions followed his wide eyed stare and found themselves staring at the most beautiful woman any of them had seen in a long, long time. She was dressed in a bright red dress that complimented her waist lengh hair and irridecent green eyes. The saloon singer made her way to a private table near the piano and sat down.

"Will you look at the length of those legs!" Josiah muttered. "It’s enough to give a man impure thoughts."

"That’s not all it’s likely to do!" Buck howled. "Man, she is one fine piece of work." Turning to his friend, he asked, "So who is that and what’s her name?"

"Forget it, my friend. Marlana is out of your league."

"Out of my league! I need to remind you, John ole boy, that you are talking to Buck Wilmington."

"Yeah, I know who I’m talking to and, Buck ole boy, take it from me, she’s out of your league."

"She looks like she’d be out of anyone’s league," J.D. swallowed, watching as the tall leggy brunette scanned the room with disinterest.

"Mamma, come to Buck," Buck stated, rising to his feet.

"Buck, I reckon I should warn you, Marlana works here and is strictly off limits to all clients," John cried, reaching for Buck’s arm and holding him.

"That ain’t never stopped me before," Buck proclaimed grinning.

"Buck, I’ve been in Milton for almost nine months and I ain’t never seen anyone score with Marlana."

"Well, John, that’s about to change. Mr. Smooth himself is in town," Buck stated confidently straightening his hat.

"I got a dollar that says she won’t say more than five words to ya," John challenged.

"You’re on!" Buck agreed, slamming a coin on the table and swaggering across to the beautiful woman.

The other men watched as Buck stopped at the table, removed his hat and began asserting his ‘animal magnetism’. The brunette glanced up at him, picked up her glass of wine and flung it in the smiling scoundrel’s face. John and the rest of Buck’s comrades burst out laughing.

When the big man returned to the table wiping his face, the others proceeded to applaud him.

"Yep, Buck. Yep, that was real smooth!" J.D. laughed.

"Shut-up boy and find me something to wipe this wine off with. Don’t want people smelling it and thinking I drink that fairy pee."

"No, Buck. A fine lady like that, needs gentle words," Josiah muttered.

"Care to put your money where your mouth is, preacher man?" Buck demanded. Josiah considered the proposal for a few seconds and then flicked a coin onto the table.

The other men watched eagerly as the big preacher made his way across the crowded room and stopped beside the woman who had just had a meal served to her table.

"Wish I could hear what he’s sayin’" J.D. muttered. The boy had barely got the thought out when the lovely Marlana picked up her plate and threw the contents at Josiah. The preacher tipped his hat politely and returned to his laughing companions.

"See, what did I tell you," John cried. "She ain’t called the Snow Queen for nothin’ ya know."

"The young lady obviously has her sights set on someone of breeding. A man with finesse," Ezra explained with a superiority that only Ezra could.

"You mean, someone like you?" Nathan asked with disgust.

"Well, now that you mention it, Mr. Jackson, yes. Unfortunately, I am not dressed to meet such a fine lady."

"Ain’t the clothes that make a man, Ezra," Nathan argued. "Go on. Let’s see if your ‘finesse’ can get you through."

Ezra eyed his friends, glanced at the Goddess across the room and smiled. "Why, not." With that, the gambler took out a coin and added it to the growing pot and then strode across the room. He bowed to the lady and then began to speak to her. And speak to her.....and speak to her.

"Hey, he must be doin’ alright," J.D. muttered. "At least she hasn’t chucked anything at him." As if hearing J.D.’s proclimation of doom, Marlana stood up and slapped Ezra across his face. The gambler tipped his hat and then turned back toward his comrades, rubbing his stinging cheek.

"Now, what was it you was saying about ‘finesse’?" Buck laughed.

"Yes, well, I admit that perhaps, your friend was right. The lady is in a league of her own. Of course, had I been attired properly, I am entirely certain that Miss Marlana would have responded more positively."

"You, wish," Nathan muttered.

**************

Vin entered the livery and became aware of movement off to one side. A man creeping up on the back door leading outside. Now, what was he up to? Silently, Vin followed the creeper. As the curious tracker drew closer to the end of the livery, he could hear the sounds of a fight out the back. Standing behind the man he had been following, Vin peered out the door. There was a very large man dressed in a poncho fighting three smaller men.... and the big fella was holding his own. The man Vin was standing behind, slowly drew his gun and aimed it at the large fighter’s back. Vin Tanner’s hand chopped down on the coward’s wrist, sending the gun rocketing to the floor. The big man turned, his eyes narrowing as he took in the scene. With one final punch, he downed the last of the trio that had been causing him some annoyance and then strode toward Vin and his final adversary. Curling up his fist, he hammered the unarmed man, sending him crashing to the ground unconscious. Then he glared at Vin.

"Why?" he demanded, his Mexican accent thick and clear.

Vin returned the other’s hard gaze. "No man deserves to be shot in the back." The Mexican’s eyes widened with surprise and then he nodded curtly and watched the tracker turn and head back into the livery.

After ensuring that the other men had brushed Peso down correctly, Vin started for the door. At the very last minute, he turned and stared back into the dark shadow that his new Mexican friend obviously thought hid him.

"I’d appreciate it, if you didn’t steal ‘those’ horses," Vin stated, inclining his head toward the Seven’s mounts. The huge Mexican stepped into the light, grinned and nodded. Vin tipped his hat and then joined Chris who had moved to stand in the door way.

"Everything alright?" Chris inquired, eyeing the huge man in the poncho with interest.

"Yep. Come on. I need a drink."

*************