Under the Sweetwater Rim (1971) by Louis L'amour Page B

. . . I didn't mean. . . I wasn't stealing. I was" "I know, West. You didn't trust me, and you were taking the money back the quickest way you knew how."
    The wounded man nodded. "I'm sorry. I-was "Forget it."
    "Don't . . . waste time. I . . . I am dying."
    "There's not much I can do for you, Corporal.
    To try to move you would mean pain. You've been hit bad."
    "I know."
    Lieutenant Tenadore Brian stood up.
    He had looked upon many men dying, and knew how little there was to do now, how foolish to try, under the circumstances. The man had only minutes remaining, that was all. "You're a good man, West.
    I'll tell them that. I'll report that to Major Devereaux and the Colonel. I'll tell them you died trying to save the money." "Thanks." The word was a faint whisper.
    "I'll be getting on, Corporal. And don't worry I'll come up with Dorsey."
    He stepped into the saddle, saluted the dying man, and rode away. Corporal West lay still, looking up at the sky. The birds were fussing, and then they stopped and from somewhere across the meadow he heard a meadow lark, as he had heard them in the fields as a boy. He used to go out to bring in the cows, and the meadow larks would be there. Their song was a sound he loved to hear.
    He heard it again . . . just over the way, there.
    The wind blew cold from off the Sweetwater Needles; from the flanks of Atlantic Peak and Granite Peak it swept over the last winter's snow through the brush, and down across the flats. It stirred the aspens along the slopes, and brought the smell of pines to Tenadore Brian. His time was short, his pace hard. Dorsey was somewhere ahead of him, and the man would fight. He had stolen and he had committed murder, and he would know that now there was no turning back.
    His horses must be just ahead. Their tracks were fresh, and Brian rode with his rifle in his hand, prepared for anything.
    He wove among the pines, and rode along a grassy slope flecked with spring flowers. His horse's hoofs in their swift passing pressed down the grass and flowers, but when the horse had gone on, the grass would rise into place again, and the flowers would bloom as before.
    A flicker of sunlight shone on a rifle barrel and he whipped the gray around in a tight circle, heard the whop of a rifle bullet that passed him, and then he was charging toward the boulders from which the shot had come. There was no cover where he had been, it was this or death, and he went up the short slope, reins free, the rifle ready. He heard another shot, but he was coming on fast and Dorsey was shooting too quick. He leaped the horse over the outer rim of rocks and fired twice. His first shot was a clean miss; the second hit the action of Dorsey's rifle and spun the man around.
    Dorsey dropped the gun and jumped at Brian, grabbing his rifle by the barrel.
    Kicking free of the stirrups, Brian left the saddle in a long dive and hit Dorsey, knocking him rolling. They both came up fast, and Dorsey had Brian's rifle.
    Brian flipped the gun from his holster and fired, the bullet catching Dorsey in the chest. The man backed up and Brian walked in on him, slapping the rifle from his suddenly useless hands.
    "You're a murderer, Dorsey. You killed a good man back there-a better man than you ever were."
    Hatred blazed in Dorsey's eyes.
    "You'll never get out of this, Brianl You're trapped!"
    Dorsey sat down abruptly and the blood started to come from the hole in his chest, bubbling with a froth that told the bullet had gone through the lung. "They're all around you, Brianl The Kelsey boysl You'll die here with me." Ten Brian picked up the rifle and walked across to the gray. For a moment his eyes swept the area.
    Dorsey's three horses stood in a hollow about twenty yards away. He noted the position of the reins and the lead rope. He ignored Dorsey. The man was finished. All he could do now was shout obscene oaths. His eyes sweeping the brush and trees, measuring the distances, Brian reloaded his rifle and pistol. Then he