e again.

"Your fine explanations of why you couldn't get that money up to the
mine were thin as water, Sautee. You could get that money up there if
you wanted to, an' when you asked me to carry the package to the mine
it was a dead out-an'-out give-away. I reckon you didn't play me to
have any sense, an' I don't think you gave Carlisle credit for havin'
the brains of a jack rabbit, either."

Rathburn laughed as the mine manager stared at mention of Carlisle's
name again.

"Don't worry," he said contemptuously. "I know it was Carlisle who
held me up. I take it he figured that you'd actually put money in that
package. Wouldn't be surprised if it was him that you got to try that
stunt. An' he started away with the package as soon as he got it
instead of sneakin' back home to split with you. He double crossed you
an' you double crossed him an' me. Now I'm double crossing the two of
you."

Sautee's look had changed to one of anger. He glared at Rathburn,
forgetting his predicament.

"You'd have a fine time proving any of this nonsense," he found the
courage to say.

"I'm not only goin' to prove what I've said so far, but I'm goin' to
prove that these robberies were a put-up job between you an' Carlisle,
with somebody helping you," said Rathburn. "I've been in the mining
game myself, Sautee, but in our country men spend their lives hunting
metal to make some bunch of stockholders rich. Maybe they get
something out of it themselves, an' maybe they don't; but they're
square, an' the men that run the mines are square 'most always. Anyway
they develop properties, an' that's more'n you're doing. You're not
doing this camp any good. You're bleeding the mine an' the company,
too."

"And I suppose you--The Coyote--are taking a hand in this business as
a matter of principle," sneeringly replied Sautee.

"I didn't take a hand," Rathburn pointed out sternly. "You an'
Carlisle forced a hand on me, an' I'm goin' to play it out. I've
another reason, too," he added mysteriously.

"Did you say you had Carlisle?" Sautee asked in feigned anxiety.

"I've got him dead to rights," replied Rathburn shortly, taking some
paper and a pencil from a pocket.

Sautee looked at him curiously as he started to write on the paper.
"Going to write it all out and leave it?" he asked sneeringly.

"I'm going to put it outside the powder house in a place where Mannix
or some of the others will be sure to find it," was the puzzling
answer.

"I