in after you, knowin' that you'd have a cooler head for this
here thing than--than I have."

"My God!" The exclamation shot from Trowbridge like the crack of a gun.
"How did it happen?"

Santry explained the details, in so far as he knew them, in a few
breathless sentences. The old man was clearly almost beside himself with
grief and rage, and past the capacity to act intelligently upon his own
initiative. He had not been satisfied, he said, to remain behind at the
ranch and let Wade go to the timber tract alone, and so after a period
of indecision he had followed him. Near the edge of the timber he had
come upon Wade's riderless horse, trailing broken bridle reins. He had
followed the animal's tracks back to the point of the assault, but
there was no sign of Wade, which fact indicated that he had been carried
away by those who had overcome him.

"I could see by the tracks that there was a number of 'em; as many as
five or six," the old man summed up. "I followed their sign as far as I
could, but I lost it at the creek. Then I went back to the house and
sent some of the boys out to scout around before I come down here after
you."

"Where do you suppose they could have taken him?" Trowbridge asked.
"They'd never dare bring him to town."

"Gawd knows, Lem! There's more pockets and drifts up in them hills than
there is jack-rabbits. 'Tain't likely the boys'll find any new sign,
leastways not in time; not before that ---- of a Moran--it was him did
it, damn him! I know it was. Lem, for Gawd's sake, what are we goin' to
do?"

"The first thing to do, Bill, is to get you out of this town, before
Thomas shows up and jumps you."

"I don't keer for myself. I'll shoot the...."

"Luckily, he's away just now," Trowbridge went on, ignoring the
interruption. "Come with me!" He led the way into the hotel. "Frank," he
said to the red-headed proprietor, "is Moran in town to-day?"

"Nope." The Irishman regarded Santry with interest. "He went out this
morning with four or five men."

"Rexhill's here, ain't he?" Trowbridge asked then. "Tell him there's two
gentlemen here to see him. Needn't mention any names. He doesn't know
me."

When Santry, with the instinct of his breed, hitched his revolver to a
more convenient position on his hip, Trowbridge reached out and took it
away from him. He dared not trust the old man in his present mood. He
intended to question the Senator, to probe him, perhaps to threaten him;
but the time