Yeager viewed him with stern disgust. "Don't make any mistake, seh. If
you go down it's an even chance you'll never go back."

"Sure. Life's full of chances. There's even a chance I'm not a rustler."

"Then I'd advise you not to go down to Seven Mile with me. I'd hate to
find out too late I'd helped hang the wrong man," Yeager dryly answered.




CHAPTER V

AN AIDER AND ABETTOR


Having come to an understanding, Yeager and Keller wasted no time or
temper in acrimony. Both of them belonged to that big outdoors West
which plays the game to the limit without littleness. They were in
hostile camps, but that did not prevent them from holding amiable
conversation on the common topics of Cattleland. Only one of these they
avoided by mutual consent. Neither of them had anything to say about
rustling.

Together they ate and smoked and slept, and in the morning after
breakfast they saddled and set out for Seven Mile. A man might have
traveled far without seeing finer specimens of the frontier, any more
competent, self-restrained, or fitter for emergency. They rode with
straight back and loose seat, breaking long silences with occasional
drawling comment. For in the cow country strong men talk only when they