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grunted agreement.
     
    Ten rubbed his raspy chin thoughtfully. "Nevada called. He's pulling out of Afghanistan. He'll be home in a few weeks."
     
    Luke glanced sideways at Ten. "Is he still a renegade?"
     
    "All the Blackthorns are wild. It's the Highland Scots blood."
     
    "Yeah. Outlaws to the bone. Like you. You don't make any noise about it, but you go your own way and to hell with what the rest of the world thinks."
     
    Ten said only, "A few years of guerrilla warfare tends to settle down even the wildest kid."
     
    "You should know."
     
    "Yes. I should know."
     
    Luke nodded and said softly, "Hire him."
     
    Ten looked at Luke. "Thanks. I owe you one."
     
    "No way, compadre. I should have been the man to shake the kinks out of Baker, not you."
     
    A slight smile crossed the ramrod's face. "My pleasure."
     
    Luke looked thoughtful. "Does Nevada fight the same way you do?"
     
    "Wouldn't surprise me. He was taught by the same people."
     
    "Good. He can trade off guarding September Canyon with you." Luke sighed and rubbed his neck wearily. "You know, there are days I wish Carla had never found those damn ruins. It's costing us thousands of dollars a year in manpower alone just to keep pothunters out."
     
    "We could do what some of the other ranchers have done."
     
    "What's that?"
     
    "Sell some of the artifacts to pay for protecting the ruins."
     
    "The September Canyon ruins are on your part of the ranch," Luke said, his face expressionless. "Is that what you want to do?"
     
    Ten shook his head. "I'll give the land back to you before I sell off artifacts. Or I'll give the land back to the government if neither one of us can afford to protect the ruins. My head knows that ninety-eight percent of those artifacts aren't uniques—universities and museums are full of Anasazi stuff as good or better. Once the excavation has been carefully done, there's no good reason not to get back the cost of the digging by selling off some of the stuff."
     
    "But?" Luke asked.
     
    Ten shrugged. "But my gut keeps telling me that those artifacts belong in the place where they were made and used and broken and mended and used again. It's pure foolishness but that's how I feel about it, and as long as I can afford it, I plan on keeping my foolish ways."
     
    Luke looked at Ten and said quietly, "If my drunken daddy had sold pieces of the Rocking M to anybody but you, I would have been in a world of hurt with no place to call home."
     
    Ten stood and clapped Luke on the shoulder. "It was an even trade, compadre. Back then, I was in a world of hurt and looking for a home."
     
    "You've got the home. What about the hurt? Still have that?"
     
    "I got over it a long time ago."
     
    "Then why haven't you married again?"
     
    "A smart dog doesn't have to be taught the same lesson twice," Ten said sardonically. "I'm a hell of a lot smarter than a dog."
     
    "She must have been something."
     
    "Who?"
     
    "Your ex-wife."
     
    Ten shrugged. "She was honest. That's better than most. When the sex wore off she wanted out. By then I was more than willing. Next time I was smarter. I didn't marry just because my blood was running hot. After a few weeks the same thing happened, only this time the girl didn't want to admit it. I shipped out the first chance I got."
     
    "That was a long time ago. You were a wild kid chasing girls who wereno better than they had to be. You're different now."
     
    Ten shook his head, "You got lucky, Luke. I didn't. You learned one thing about women and marriage. I learned another."
     
    Without giving Luke a chance to speak, Ten left the room. Behind him, Luke sat motionless, listening to the sound of Ten's fading footsteps and the soft thump of a closing door.
     
     
    4
     
     
    As the dirt road zigzagged across national forest lease lands and down the steep side of the high, mountainous plateau where the Rocking M ranch buildings were located, the land became more dry and the earth more intensely colored.