out of his hand any time," replied Bill. "Get your pony,
Murphy."

"I'll join your posse," suggested Murphy. "I bet I can ferret out more
booze than any three of you."

"Nothing doing!" growled Bill. "Should think you would have better taste
than to wanta do that."

Murphy shrugged his shoulders. "I want you to let me go up to that Greek
fellow's place before I go," he said.

Bill stared but made no comment.

As Jim rode back through the lower town he stopped young Hartman, the
government photographer.

"Hartman," he asked, "have the films for the movies come in yet?"

"Came in yesterday, Mr. Manning."

"Good work! Hartman, will you give us a show this evening?"

"The hall's in pretty rough shape but if you want it----"

"I want it to keep things quiet, Hartman, till we find those hombres and
get them in jail at Cabillo."

The young fellow nodded. "I'll have things ready at seven. After the
funeral, I'll get the word out."

Jim rode on to his neglected work at the office. There he found the
members of the committee awaiting him. Even the chairman was eager to
know details of occurrences since they had gone reluctantly to bed after
midnight.

When Jim had finished his story, the Vermont man said pompously: "You
seem to manage men rather well, Mr. Manning. In behalf of my colleagues
I wish to thank you for your hospitality to us. As you know, we must
leave this afternoon."

Jim nodded. "I shall have my superintendent take you over to the train.
You will understand that I do not want to leave the camp myself."

"I wish we could stay and see the end of this," said one of the members.
"It's like life in a dime novel."

"My chief regret is that we only had half of the Mask Ball. After this,
when my constituents are tempted to give me a dinner, I shall urge a
Mask Ball instead. Never had one given for me before and no debutante
ever had anything on my feelings last night," said another.

"Henderson should have been a country squire," said Jim. "He's a perfect
host."

The camp was quiet during the afternoon. Jim saw the committee off at
five o'clock, then went up to the tent house. Sara and he glanced at
each other coolly and nodded. Pen started the conversation hurriedly.

"What word from the two hombres?"

Jim shook his head. "One posse got away last night before I warned them.
I'm afraid that if the murderers are brought into camp I can't avert a
lynching bee."

Pen shivered. Sara grunted. "You'd