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He said, "If we’re lucky, they’ll only trail us They can shoot at the train’s rear car all day--ain’t nobody inside there gonna give a shit Or if we’re lucky another way, they’ll be stuck on soh that they’ll be hard-​pressed to do us too h, even if they side us"

Pierce Tankersly turned away froer, "And what if we’re not lucky? What then, Texian? What will they do?"

"If we’re not lucky?" He adjusted his hat, bringing it back do enough that he could’ve grazed it if he’d lifted his eyebrows in surprise "They’ll overtake us, and ave hi the soldier knew precious little about trains, so the ranger clarified "If they blow the tracks up there, this train will go off the rails Literally Most of us’ll probably die on iet shot, or freeze to death"

The private said, "Then what are you standing over here for, et killed saht! Take up a position--hell, go find the captain and see where he’d like an extra man"

But Korman said, "No I can’t do that I won’t shoot at ht be ht it’d make a lick of difference to whether or not they take this train That just ain’t hoorks, junior And if the shoe were on the other foot, you’d probably treat the situation just the saht for er replied, "Well, all right,forI could do to slon that train, and not o up to our front cars and run those weapons she’s pulling down Otherwise, best I could hope to do is keep theer car I don’t kno h to try to board us like a pirate shipto bet the answer is none too ain--shaking the sheets of ice that hung off thewith you, man? What if they do board us? What if, somehow, they stop us and you survive it--then what?"

"Then nothing," he replied, as easy as thanking the porter for a cup of coffee "They know I’m on board, and they won’t shoothis revolvers around and pointed both at the ranger, who didn’t uess you could, and I could even see where it ht make sense to you But keep this inyour corpses overboard without thinking twice about it For the last five minutes I’ve had a nice fat shot at a whole row of you dumb sons of bitches, all of you with your backsides ripe for the aiot no problem with you I’d like to see you succeed I’d like toyou off won’t do anything to help ain, but maybe he was out of tobacco, or et another blast of cold air in the face "Hell," he said instead "I’ve said it since I got on board, and I’ll keep saying it until I get let off or get thrown off: I’ainst you, on behalf of the Confederacy or the Republic or anybody else Y’all leave me alone, and I’ll leave you alone, like I’ve left you alone all this tiet froain Even Tankersly looked over his shoulder, sensing it was close And since the ranger hadn’t drawn, and hadn’t budged, the private reluctantly turned away But he said, "I’er said, "Knock yourself out Maybe I’ll do a little dance"

Mercy turned away from the conversation and went to a spare square ofin order to see outside At first she thought the glass was going opaque fro puffed upon it, but then she realized that the visibility was shrinking froh the pass--which she could see, just barely, because of the way the track bent ahead and showed her the curve of the train

There it was: a gap cut between the h she knew that the ranger ht, and it couldn’t be any wider than a quarter of ainto it were about a dozen tracks, all lined up side by side so they made a pattern of stripes squeezed into the narrow corridor

And off to the south, she could see it now: the Shenandoah

It streaked up toonly four cars as opposed to the Dreadnought’s eight (if she included the sno fixture, which was of such terrific size and weight that sheup fro track that surely added ht But even from her spot on board the Union train, Mercy could see that the other engine was flying like lightning Surely it was difficult to judge, but it couldn’t be her iround, and as her eyes tracked the gap and the other engine’s path, she could’ve sworn that the ranger was right--it wasn’t a matter of if, but of when

The foreer car blew open and Captain MacGruder cah it, with Inspector Galeano at his side The captain pointed out a spot on the defensive line and told the Mexican, "There And we’ll put your partner at the first car so we can , silver-​wheeled pistol out of a carved-​leather holster and let it spin as he twisted it with his wrist and up into his hand "Sí, señor Wherever you need me"

Then the captain turned his attention to Horatio Korman and said, "You, coer did not object Instead, he iht you’d never coo and she asked, "Co?" Instead of answering, they moved to the rearh she had a feeling that one or both of the her not to Before the wind had died down froap, she had entered the caboose behind the air and sealing the like a very uncomfortable vacuum

She turned around just in time to see Captain MacGruder level his service revolver at Malverne Purdue and tell him, "Out of the way, Purdue"

But Purdue was already on his feet, Winchester in hand and aiht back at him He said, "No"