Gus
wanted somethin' or other. He was plumb surprised, an' he said Mac New
was plumb flustered. Now what you make of thet?"

"By golly, Blink, I don't know. There's no reason why he shouldn't
have some money, yet it strikes me queer. How much gold?"

"Aw, two or three hundred easy," rejoined Blinky. "It struck me sort
of queer, too. I recollected thet he told us he'd only been doin'
guard duty at the jail fer a couple of months. An' Gus recollected how
not long before Mac New went to work he'd been a regular grub-line
runner. We fed him heah, or Juan did. Now, pard, it may be all right
an' then again it mayn't. Are you shore aboot him?"

"Blink, you make me see how I answer to some feeling that's not
practical," returned Pan, much perturbed. "Mac was an outlaw in
Montana. Maybe worse. Anyway I saved him one day from being strung
up. That was on the Powder River, when I was riding for Hurley's X Y Z
outfit. They were a hard lot. And Mac's guilt wasn't clear to me.
Anyway, I got him out of a bad mess, on condition he'd leave the
country."

"Ahuh! Wal, I see. But it's a shore gamble he's one of Hardman's
outfit now, same as Purcell."

"Reckon he was. But he got fired."

"Thet's what _he_ says."

"Blink, you advise me not to trust Mac New?" queried Pan dubiously.

"I ain't advisin' nobody. If you want my opinion, I'd say, now I know
what you done fer Mac New, thet he wouldn't double-cross you. When it
comes down under the skin there ain't much difference between outlaws
an' other range men in a deal like thet."

"Well, I'll trust him just because of that feeling I can't explain,"
returned Pan.

He did not, however, forget the possible implication, and it hovered in
his mind. It was after dark when Mac New and Brown rode into camp.
Pan and the others were eating their supper.

"We had to ride clean to the end of the valley to cross that wash,"
said Brown. "It's rough country. Horses all down low. Didn't see so
many, at that, until we rimmed around way up on this side."

"Fine. You couldn't have pleased me more," declared Pan. "Now Mac,
what do you say?"

"About this heah hoss huntin'?" queried Mac New.

"Yes. Our prospects, I mean. You've chased wild horses."

"It'll be most as bad as stealin' hosses," replied the outlaw,
laconically. "Easy work an' easy money."

"Say, you won't think it's easy work when you get to dragging cedars
down that hill in the hot sun all day. I d