"How did you find us?"

"Been watchin' for you.  Your ma sent word about what happened at your place.  You didn't think I was goin' to tackle that outfit all by myself, did you?  I said to myself, says I, 'Them boys will come a high-tailin' it after their sister, an' they'll surely need help.'  So I been settin' an' waitin' while sort of keepin' track of that outfit."

"How far ahead are they?"

"Last night, about two days.  Looks to me like they've taken a notion to go over to the Gulf Coast.  At least, they've changed direction.  Turned almost at right angles just after some gent rode into their camp on a paint pony.  He was not a stranger to them, either.  He just rode right in and went straight to the bossman.

"I figured they were at least three days ahead."

"They been settin'.  I figure they were waitin' for whatever this gent on the paint had to tell them.

"You know, most of those folks down below that border are mighty fine people, but just like with us, there's some that hangin' is too good for.  There's folks down there will pay good prices for women, preferably white women, blondes at the top of the list.

"They'll buy men, too, black or white, to work in the mines.  They don't let the officials know what's goin' on, or they find one they can pay off.  Most of them live far out in the hills, and some are bandits, operatin' both sides of the border.  I figure that's where they're headed for."

"Why would they head for the Gulf Coast?"

"Only thing that makes sense is that they figure to meet a ship over there.  You know there's some fellers around who were smuggling slaves in through the bayous to New Orleans and the like.  With the end of the War they're out of business, unless they find something else.  They'll stop at nothing.

"Importing slaves into the country has been illegal for years, but they smuggled 'em in.  The way I hear it this Ashford feller used to deal in smuggled slaves now and again.  Take 'em to his plantation, let 'em work for a few weeks, then sell them off like they'd been here for years.

"If that's true he would know who to get in touch with if he had something to sell.  Trust a slave dealer to know where slaves, even white slaves, could be sold."

"How could a man justify that sort of thing?  What kind of man could he be?" Mac said.

Happy Jack glanced at him over his cup.  "There's some folks will justify anything if it will make them a dollar.  Commonest excuse is that if they don't do it somebody else will.  It's high time folks started ostracizing anybody who makes a dishonest dollar.  Worst thing about crime is the kind of people you have to associate with."