around him.

"Talk soft," whispered Buck. "Maybe he knows we're talkin' about him."

He raised his voice out of the whisper, breaking in on a sentence about
Joan, as if this were the tenor of their talk. Then he lowered his tone
again.

"Think quick. Talk soft. Do you want Dan kept here?"

"For God's sake, yes."

"Suppose the posse gets him here?"

"We musn't dodge the law."

They were gauging their voices with the closest precision. Talking like
this so close to Barry was like dancing among flasks of nitroglycerine.
Once, and once only, Lee Haines cast a desperate eye across to them,
begging them to come to his rescue, then he went back to his talk with
Dan, raising his voice to shelter the conference of the other two.

"If they come, he'll fight."

"No, he isn't at the fighting pitch yet, I know!"

"If you're wrong they'll be dead men here."

"He sees no difference between the death of a horse and the death of a
man. He feels that the law has no score against him. He'll go quietly."

"And we'll find ways of fightin' the law?"

"Yes, but it needs money."

"I've got a stake."

"God bless you, Buck."

"Take my advice."

"What?"

"Let him go now."

She glanced at him wildly.

"Kate, he's gone already."

"No, no, no!"

"I say he's gone. Look at his eyes."

"I don't dare."

"The yaller is comin' up in 'em. He's wild again." She shook her head in
mute agony. Buck Daniels groaned, softly.

"Then they's goin' to be a small-sized hell started around this cabin
before mornin'."

He got up and went slowly back towards the fire. Lee Haines was talking
steadily, leisurely, going round and round his subject again and again,
and Barry listened with bowed head, but his eyes were fixed upon those
of the wolf-dog at his feet. When he grew restless, Haines chained him
to the chair with some direct question, yet it was a hard game to play.
All this time the posse might be gathering around the cabin; and the
forehead of Haines whitened and glistened with sweat. His voice was the
only living thing in the cabin, after a time, sketching his imaginary
plans for the benefit of Barry--his voice and the wistful eyes of Joan
which kept steadily on Daddy Dan. Something has come between them and
lifted a barrier which she could not understand, and with all her aching
child's heart she wondered at it.

For the second time that evening the wolf stood up on the hearth, but
he was not yet on his feet before Dan was