We shot the horse in the head, since there was nothing else we could do for it.Apparently, when the horse fell, he had thrown the rider, and that resu...lted in the broken bones. We searched the rider and found absolutely no means of identification, so there was no way we could contact relatives. We did the only thing reasonable and searched the man for any valuables we might be able to use. Dammit, this galoot was a walking arsenal: he had four revolvers, a derringer, and three knives. On top of. How old was she? Eighteen? Nineteen? Certainly no more than twenty. As we arrived, I felt darkness surround me. A voice in my head told me not to follow her into that ruin, but my hormones were stronger. Stupid me. She took my hand and led the way inside. There were cats. Tons of cats. A big-ass load of cats! All over the goddamn place! And black! All of them black! Only her bedroom up that creaking flight of stairs was free of these furry little animals. With every step I took up that. " You're right," Karen said. Brandi looked at them both in confusion."We made a bet about how long it would take you to light up once we wereoutside," Karen explained."Very funny," Brandi said, exhaling smoke in their general direction."You have been smoking a lot more lately," Melissa said."I know," Brandi said. "It's not even like I really enjoy it that much. Imean I get a sense of satisfaction because it is programmed into me, butI do it mainly as a distraction. I can focus on that rather. "Murdock picked out about ten men and disappeared in the night. Everybody was mounted that evening, and I expect there were quite a few horses out there that had a strange rider on their backs and a few work critters that hadn't been saddled for a long time. Stud Farrell had lent me one of his father's nags, but I didn't see Stud there. Didn't half expect to since he was a greenhorn, barely half growed back in '76. I imagined he was rolling in Annie's cot, trying to get it up again, and I.