Startled, she raised her head to listen.

The men were coming back.

Relief and dread seemed to clear her stupor.
The trotting horses stopped across the lane from her cabin, evidently at the corral where she had left Spades.

She heard him whistle.
From the sound of hoofs she judged the number of horses to be six or eight.

Low voices of men mingled with thuds and cracking of straps and flopping of saddles on the ground.