nds. Maybe it was the other
'gunman.'"

Murray's satisfaction was obvious. He nodded.

"Sure. It's Shaunbaum's play. There's no question. Everybody got it
ahead. It wouldn't be his way to see another feller snatch his dame
without a mighty hard kick. It's Shaunbaum--sure."

He bestirred himself. All his old energy seemed to spring suddenly
into renewed life. Again came that forceful gesture of the fist which
Bill watched with so much interest, and the binding of the ledger
creaked under its force.

"By God! I hope they get him and hang him by his rotten vulture neck!
He's run his vile play too long. He's a disease--a deadly, stinking,
foul disease. Maybe it was a 'gunman' did the shooting. But I'd bet
my life it was Shaunbaum behind him. And to think these poor lone
women-folk, hundreds of miles away from him, should be the victims.
See here, Kars, I'm no sort of full-fledged angel. I don't set myself
up as any old bokay of virtue. There's things count more with me, and
one of 'em's dollars. I'm out after all I can get of 'em. But I'd
give half of all I possess to see a rawhide tight around Shaunbaum's
neck so it wouldn't give an inch. I haven't always seen eye to eye
with young Alec. Maybe our temperaments were sort of contrary. But
this thing's got me bad. Before God, there's not a thing I wouldn't do
to save these poor women-folk hurt. They're right on their lonesome
now. Do you get all that means to women-folk? There isn't a soul
between them and the world. You ask me to stand by. You ask me to
keep my hand on the tiller of things. I don't need the asking--by any
one. I was Allan's partner, and Allan's friend. It's my duty and my
right to get in between these poor folk and a world that would show
them small enough mercy. And I don't hand my right to any man living.
I got to thank you coming along to me. But it don't need you, or any
other man, to ask me to get busy for the sake of these folk. You can
reckon on me looking after things right here, Kars. I'm ready to do
all I know. And God help any one who'd rob them of a cent. Allan left
his work only half done. It was for them. And I'm going to carry it
through. The way he'd have had it."

The rain had ceased. A watery sunshine had broken through the heavy
clouds which were reluctantly yielding before a bleak wintry wind. It
was the low poised sun of afternoon in the early year, and its warmth
was as ineffectual as its