Chapter Six – The Men in the Distance
They heard the horses before they saw them.
Several.
Coming slowly.
Not charging.
That was worse.
The rhythm suggested confidence.
Men who believed the street already belonged to them did not need to hurry.
The woman turned first.
The cowboy followed her gaze.
Mounted figures waited beyond the nearest buildings, distant enough that details remained unclear but close enough that neither could pretend they were passing through.
The cowboy tightened his grip on the knife.
The woman noticed.
“You have a gun.”
“Yes.”
“Yet you are holding a knife.”
“I was using it.”
“That is not what I asked.”
He looked at the blade.
Then back at the riders.
“Sometimes putting your hand on a gun answers a question before you know what was being asked.”
She studied him.
“European?”
He glanced at her.
“What makes you say that?”
“You speak like a man who learned to argue before he learned to fight.”
“That insulting?”
“I have not decided.”
Despite the tension, the remark settled something between them.
He lowered the knife slightly.
Not surrender.
Control.
The mounted men remained where they were.
Watching.
Waiting.
The cowboy now understood the shape of the moment.
The rope had fallen.
But the real test had only begun.
