, when I get
around to it--and leave a note saying who you are, and that you're the
head push in this rustling business, and that you helped spend the
money that Hardup bank lost awhile back; and that you're one of the
gazabos--"

"You can't prove it! You--"

"I don't have to prove it. The authorities will do all that when they
get the tip I'll give them. And you, being hung up on a limb
somewhere, can't very well give your pardner the double-cross; so
they'll have a fighting chance to make their getaway.

"Now I'm through talking to you. What I say goes. You can talk if you
want to, Buck; but I'm going to carve a steak out of you every time you
open your mouth." He pulled Buck's own knife out of its sheath and
laid it convenient to his hand, and he looked as if he would do any
cruel thing he threatened.

He relighted the fire, which had gone out long ago, and set the
dish-pan on the stove with water to heat. He remade his bunk,
spreading on the army blanket which he took from the saddle on Rattler.
He swept the floor as neatly as any woman could have done it and laid
the two wolf-skins down in their places where they did duty as rugs.
He washed and wiped his few dishes, keeping Buck's knife always within
reach and sending an inquiring glance toward Buck whenever that unhappy
man made the slightest movement, though truth to tell, Buck did not
make many. He brought two pails of water and set them on the bench
inside, and in the meantime he had cooked a mess of prunes and set them
in a bowl on the window-sill beside his bunk, where the air was
coolest. He stropped his razor painstakingly and shaved himself in
leisurely fashion and sent an occasional glance toward his prisoner
from the looking-glass, which made Buck swallow hard at his Adam's
apple.

And Buck, during all this time, never once opened his lips, except to
lick his tongue across them, and never once took his eyes off Ward.

"I've sure put the fear of the Lord into you, haven't I, Buck?" Ward
observed maliciously, wiping a blob of hairy lather upon a page torn
from an old Sears-Roebuck catalogue. "I was kinda hoping you had more
nerve. I wanted to get a whack at you, just to prove I'm not joshing."

Buck swallowed again, but he made no reply.

Ward washed his face in a basin of steaming water, got a can of talcum
out of the dish cupboard, and took the soap-shine off his cheeks and
chin. He combed his hair before the little mirror--trying u