You're saying I'm not saying anything, Callaway. I'm reminding you of a fact you already worked out on your own, given the company you're keeping tonight. Reed's gaze swept the camp behind Wade, unhurried cataloging. chief warriors and a hidden spring, I'm told, generous enough to keep an entire tribe alive through the worst drought this territory seen in a decade. Word travels fast out here in all this empty country. Grey Talon stepped forward, placing himself deliberately between Wade and the riders.
You are not welcome on this land. This land, Reed said, belongs to the United States government, chief. Whatever you or I might personally feel about the fairness of that arrangement, I represent certain interests eager to develop it. Railroad interests specifically who take a great deal of professional interest in reliable water sources along a proposed route. There is no railroad here.
Not yet. Reed smiled again, and Wade thought he'd never seen a smile do less to make a room feel safer. Behind him, his men sat their horses in a loose, easy line, rifles, resting casual across saddles in the particular way of men who don't need to look ready because everybody already knows they are. Wade counted without meaning to old habit surfacing fast under pressure. 25.
Every one of them watching the camp with the flat, assessing look of soldiers, cataloging an objective, not men simply passing through. Give it time, Reed said again. softer this time, almost gentle, which somehow made it worse. The negotiation, if it could even be called that, didn't last long. Reed offered terms. Access to the spring for his surveying crews.
A percentage of water rights, whatever that meant, coming from a man who'd never once in his life shared anything he didn't have to. Grey Talon refused every point of it. Flat, immovable. The same mountain solid refusal Wade had first met eight days ago standing in this exact yard. We have shed no blood.
Grey Talon said. Stolen nothing. This water was given to us freely by a man with more honor than every rider standing behind you combined. Reed's eyes cut to Wade at that. Something colder moved behind them now.
The pleasantness burned away. Careful, Callaway, he said. man makes a name for himself among people like this. Word gets around. Certain parties might start wondering exactly why a former soldier suddenly so invested in Apache water rights. Might start wondering what else that soldier remembers about certain requisition irregularities from five years back.
Might start deciding a loose end's worth tying off properly this time. That a threat? It's a fact. Same as most things I say. Reed gathered his reins unhurried.
The whole encounter clearly no more urgent to him than checking the time. I'll I'll be back, chief. With better paperwork, or with more men, depending on how reasonable everybody's feeling by then. Consider tonight a courtesy. I don't extend those twice.
He wheeled his horse and rode off into the dark. 25 riders falling into formation behind him. And the whole camp stood watching that dust settle for a long silent minute after they'd gone. Nobody struck a spear against the ground this time. There wasn't a sound in that whole gathering that felt like celebration anymore.