THE POACHERS

I knew Ben had been waiting for this day, the day he could match deadly force with deadly force. He'd just seen William Holden in The Wild Bunch and loved how Holden was willing to fight to the death for a noble cause. Ben's noble cause was protecting Hale Kia. He said the thing that separated a hero from a coward was knowing when to pull the trigger. The idea that our enemies were men made him more determined to defeat them—that way he'd surpass what our father had done as a boy. Our father had never gone up after anyone and Ben didn't mind me tagging along since I'd witness his exploits. We snuck through a pair of fence lines that kept the cows and steers from reaching Kam Highway. Narrow trails in the scrub brush were loaded with goat droppings. Gramma had told us the land between fences was inhabited by the 'uhane, ghosts that killed hunters.