"Hyah! Hyah!" I urged Storm Cloud, squeezing his sides with my legs.

I stood almost completely up in the stirrups so as to avoid bouncing in the saddle. I gripped the reins so hard my knuckles turned white.

"Sorry, boy," I apologized as I inadvertantly dug the bit into his mouth.

I glanced over my shoulder. John Kinney and his posse of at least 20 men were right behind us.

"Billy, they're gaining on us!" Charley wailed.

"Any bright ideas?" I called to Billy as Storm Cloud drew level with Golden Boy.

"One," Billy replied.

He turned Golden Boy sharply to the right. Our horses cantered down a slight hill, right into a grove of thorn trees. I slowed Storm down and bent as low as the saddlehorn would permit. Thorns caught on my coat and hair and sliced into my face. I could hear the boys cursing and screaming behind me. We followed the path and ended up in a muddy creek.

"Where are they?" we heard John Kinney bellow in frustration.

Billy laughed his crazy laugh, absolutely high on having outfoxed the great bounty hunter John Kinney. We rode all through the night and stopped near a place where there was a natural spring. Doc and Dirty Steve stripped down to bathe; I buried my nose in my mother's copy of Robin Hood, having no desire to see either of them in the nude.

"Shit, I think I got thorns in my ass," whined Charley.

"Chavez, can you use your knife to pull those things out?" Billy asked.

Charley reluctantly pulled down his trousers and took a long drink of whiskey for courage. "Shit!" He hopped up and down as Chavez's knife carved out the first thorn.

"It breaks my heart too," said Chavez. (Charley somehow missed the sarcasm).

Billy took out a copy of a five-cent book he'd bought, entitled The Adventures of Billy the Kid, and began to read aloud to us. "'His hat, covered with gold and jewels, sparkled in a dazzling manner when one looked upon it. The shoes worn by this left-handed prince of the plains had silver spurs in the heels.' I ain't left-handed." Billy strode over to me and showed me one of the illustrations. "And that don't even look like me."

I closed my book and squinted at the page. "Hey, you're right. Much too tall."

Billy lightly smacked me over the head with the book. I retaliated. Billy winced, for Robin Hood was much thicker than the book he was holding. Doc interrupted us by saying, "Billy, I've thought about our course. I think we did a big circle twice. And it looks like we're heading back to Lincoln, which I know we can't be--"

Billy cut Doc off. "We are."

For once, Dirty Steve showed presence of mind. "That ain't a good idea."

"Christ in heaven, what are you thinking?" Doc asked.

"If we take Murphy, The Ring will fall, and we'll win this war."

"But it's 100 against 6." Doc argued.

Billy adopted a mocking tone. "It's 100 against 6."

"It's not just 100 men." said Chavez, looking up from treating Charley. "There's bounty hunters everywhere we go. But not west."

Billy rolled his eyes. "Oh Christ. Here we go again."

"I followed you!" Chavez said sharply. "I chose your way, but I don't trust it anymore."

"You're all scared," said Billy. "You're gonna fail the test. You have to test yourself every day. Once you stop testing yourself, you get slow. When that happens, they kill you."

"Did your family raise racehorses by any chance?" I asked of that logic.

Billy acted as though he didn't hear me. "You don't feel that rush when John Kinney's ridin' up on our ass? How the blood goes right to your head? Boom!" Billy fired his pistol at nothing and laughed. "It's quite a sensation."

"Yeah, I bet it is," Doc grumbled. "In your mind, you hear angels sing a fargin' hymn. I shit in my damned britches!" Dirty Steve jumped; Doc was yelling right in his ear. "We've taken enough Murphy scalps! We cannot win this war, not with just six of us." Doc took a breath and said if Billy wanted to keep testing himself, that was fine. "But I'm riding to the border. I'll get a hot meal and a good night's sleep. Come morning, I'm a Mexican."

"Yeah, me too," Charley agreed.

"Mexico, huh?" Billy asked. Doc and Charley nodded. "Y'all are testin' yourselves and you don't even know it. Tryin' to make it to Old Mexico. What a hoot. John Kinney'll be coverin' every which-way in from Texas to Arizona. It's a full day's ride through them thorns we all love so much, which also makes a good hiding place for scalp-hunting renegade Indians. Hell, trying to go to Old Mexico's the test of all tests if you ask me. I'm in."

"I'm really not liking him," muttered Doc.