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say cruel things, Abe,” she said.
    â€œWell, maybe that’s my right,” Hacker said. “I pay you plenty to take what I dish out. And lay off the booze. It’s turning you into a hag.” He was smiling when he turned his attention to Pauleen again. “I’m joking, Mickey. She’s got a couple of good years left in her.”
    â€œWhat about the Mexicans?” Pauleen said.
    â€œYou want the woman?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œAll right, here’s what I want you to do. Ride into Mexico and find Sancho Perez. He’s usually around Chihuahua or—”
    â€œHe’ll find me,” Pauleen said. “I’ll be riding a five-hundred-dollar horse.”
    Hacker smiled at that.
    â€œTell him to round up Mexican peons, men, woman, and children, and drive them across the Rio Grande,” he said.
    â€œHow many?” Pauleen said.
    â€œAs many as Perez can get. A thousand, two thousand, more, I want them to descend on Last Chance like a plague of locusts.”
    â€œAnd drive the whites out, huh?” Pauleen said.
    â€œThat’s the idea. The people around here have been at peace for too long. By now they’ve forgotten how to fight, and they’ll cut and run.”
    â€œI reckon the ranchers haven’t forgotten. They could give us trouble.”
    â€œWell, that’s where you and the other guns come in.”
    â€œWe can handle it,” Pauleen said.
    Hacker smiled. “I know you can, Mickey. By Independence Day I want the Mexicans working in my fields and my own boys in the bunkhouses.”
    â€œThat’s a month from now,” Pauleen said. “You’re not giving us much time.”
    â€œTell that to Perez. Tell him I need the peons here in a hurry.”
    â€œWhat do I offer him?”
    â€œA dollar a head. Man, woman, or child. The more he brings in, the more money he gets.”
    Pauleen thought for a moment, then said:
    â€œAnd the locusts went up all over the land of Egypt and settled in all the territory of Egypt. Very grievous were they. Before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such.”
    â€œDamn right,” Hacker said. “That’s good Bible talk. Only this isn’t Egypt, it’s the Texas Big Bend country.”
    â€œI think the result will be the same,” Nora said. “The Garden of Eden will become a wasteland.”
    Hacker was suddenly angry and a vein pulsed on his forehead.
    â€œMaybe it will,” he said. “But, by God, I’ll squeeze a fortune out of it before it does.” To Pauleen he said, “There’s no time to waste, Mickey. Find Sancho Perez and tell him what I want.”
    The gunman nodded and stepped to the door, but Hacker’s voice stopped him.
    â€œMickey, get a couple of boys to take care of the Texas Ranger over to the hotel.”
    â€œHe’s sick in bed, boss.”
    â€œYeah, I know, but he could become a problem later.”
    Pauleen nodded. “I’ll see that he gets out of bed and into a pine box,” he said.

CHAPTER SEVEN
    â€œNo, Ranger Cannan, you can’t get out of bed, not for another three weeks at least,” the woman said.
    Her name was Roxie Miller, and she was a stern disciplinarian, one of Baptiste Dupoix’s lady friends who’d agreed to look after the ailing lawman.
    The other, called Nancy Scott, a pert, pretty blonde with huge, baby blue eyes and pink, kissable lips, was more sympathetic.
    â€œMaybe less than that,” she said, smiling, a steaming spoon poised at Cannan’s mouth. “If you eat more chicken broth.”
    â€œBut don’t count on it,” Roxie said. “You’re shot through and through, Ranger, and you’ve got no call to go gallivanting around.”
    Both women worked as hostesses at the Black Bull saloon and were only as good as they had to be.
    Roxie, tall and slender with a glossy mane of auburn hair she