so the men below can't see you.
Swing off into the timber to the left and get down out of here. I'll
keep their attention. Go home."

He waited a moment until he saw that his instructions were being
carried out, then he leaped again to the doorway of the powder house.

Sautee's face was livid, and his teeth were chattering. Rathburn took
a match from his shirt pocket.

"Stop!" screamed Sautee. "I'll talk. You were right. It was a
frame-up. I'll tell everything--_everything_!"

The perspiration was streaming from his face, and his voice shook with
terror.

"You'll have a chance to talk in less than a minute," said Rathburn
calmly.

A chorus of shouts came from the trail just below the powder house as
a number of men came into view.

Rathburn stepped in front of the door with the match in his left hand
and his gun in his right.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE SHOW-DOWN

A wild chorus of yells greeted him. He had surmised that the men had
seen him coming back down the trail to the powder house with his human
burden. Now he called Sautee into view. They would most naturally
assume that it was the mine manager he had been carrying.

"Come to the door where they can see you," he called to Sautee.

The ring in his voice brought Sautee, white-faced and shivering, to
the doorway beside Rathburn.

Another round of yells followed the mine manager's appearance. Then
there was a sudden stillness. Rathburn saw that the crowd was made up
mostly of miners. They paused in the wide place in the trail just
below the powder house, and Mannix pushed to the fore.

"I want you, Coyote," he called sternly.

"Now, don't you think I know it?" replied Rathburn in a voice which
carried to all the members of the mob. "You don't want me for robbing
this mine, Mannix; you want me for something you don't know anything
about--because I've got a record. Wait a minute!"

He shot out the words as the mob pushed a step forward.

"If you fellows take a couple more steps in this direction I'll put a
bullet into this box of dynamite!"

The movement stopped instantly. Men stared up at him breathlessly, for
they realized that he meant what he said.

Mannix's face was pale, but his eyes glowed with determination.

"Do you think it's worth it, Coyote?" he asked.

"Step up here, Mannix, an' listen to what this fellow has to say," was
Rathburn's reply. "Men," he called in a loud voice, "I'm lookin' to
you to give your mine boss an' your deput