foot."

Paul stopped laughing and his voice got very hard. "You heard the Captain and the First Sergeant say I was a little light on the thinking part. I get a headache when I try too hard and it's starting to come on now. The only thing that's going to save you fellers' life is to hand over those weapons to Matt and John there. Then we can talk about coffee and sharing supplies like brothers in arms is supposed to."

The man sputtered, "We can't give you our guns. These pistols are the new colt 44 revolvers we took off some Yankee cavalry. Same thing with the new Henry repeating rifles."

Paul said in a very serious voice. "See, there ain't no solution except for me to kill these firstwas blood on the floor and on the bed cover in the front room. There was no food left in his house and his father's rifle was missing. His dad normally kept it close by his side. He figured maybe the intruders had taken it with them. They must have taken Angie and this left him no choice, he had to go after them.

As he was running down the porch steps, he heard horses riding around the barn. He ran to the yard and saw three men pull to a stop. One of them looked familiar; he dismounted and raced over to Lawrence's dad. In a moment Lawrence realized it was their neighbor, John Combs, Angie's sweetheart who he'd not seen since he was ten years old, and