``Don't try it,'' Brannon told him, dismounting and starting up the steps with his men following. ``Don't get yourself killed for something that doesn't concern you.''

He strode past the now frightened man, entered the house. Miguel and Arturo Ramirez remained on the veranda to keep Harper from interfering. The others followed Brannon inside. They trailed him across the wide hallway to the parlor, four roughly garbed and tough looking men who probably had never before ventured into such a house. They brought to it all the odors that clung to men like themselves, that of their own sweat, of campfire smoke, of horses and cattle. They tracked mud on the oaken floor, on the carpet. Their presence fouled the elegance of that room.

And their arrival caught John Clayton and Charles Ansley off guard.