"This ain't your put in, France," he said. "It's up to Johnson." And
to the latter: "Get busy, if you're going to."

"He's a spy on you-all, just the same as he is on me," blurted the
convict.

"That's a lie, Struve," pronounced the lieutenant evenly. "I'm going
to take you back with me, but I've got nothing against these men. I
want to announce right now, no matter who tells a different story,
that I haven't lost any Squaw Creek raiders and I'm not hunting any."

"You hear? He came into this valley after me."

"Wrong again, Struve. I didn't know you were here. But I know now, and
I serve notice that I'm going to take you back with me, dead or alive.
That's what I'm paid for, and that's what I'm going to do."

It was amazing to hear this man, with a rope round his neck, announce
calmly what he was going to do to the man who had only to pull that
rope to send him into eternity. The very audacity of it had its
effect.

Slim spoke up. "I don't reckon we better go any farther with this
thing, Yorky."

"No, I don't reckon you had," cut in Dick sharply. "I'll not stand for
it."

Again the footsteps of a running man reached them. It was Siegfried.
He plunged into the group like a wild bull, shook the hair out of his