m an' me rode
from Faraway Springs, where Poggin is with some of the gang."

"Excuse me, Phil. Shore I didn't see you come in, an' Boldt never said
nothin'."

"It took you a long time to get here, but I guess that's just as well,"
spoke up a smooth, suave voice with a ring in it.

Longstreth's voice--Cheseldine's voice!

Here they were--Cheseldine, Phil Knell, Blossom Kane, Panhandle Smith,
Boldt--how well Duane remembered the names!--all here, the big men of
Cheseldine's gang, except the biggest--Poggin. Duane had holed them, and
his sensations of the moment deadened sight and sound of what was before
him. He sank down, controlled himself, silenced a mounting exultation,
then from a less-strained position he peered forth again.

The outlaws were waiting for supper. Their conversation might have been
that of cowboys in camp, ranchers at a roundup. Duane listened with
eager ears, waiting for the business talk that he felt would come. All
the time he watched with the eyes of a wolf upon its quarry. Blossom
Kane was the lean-limbed messenger who had so angered Fletcher. Boldt
was a giant in stature, dark, bearded, silent. Panhandle Smith was the
red-faced cook, merry, profane, a short, bow-legged man resembling many
rustlers Duane had known, particularly Luke Stevens. And Knell, who sat
there, tall, slim, like a boy in build, like a boy in years, with
his pale, smooth, expressionless face and his cold, gray eyes. And
Longstreth, who leaned against the wall, handsome, with his dark face
and beard like an aristocrat, resembled many a rich Louisiana planter
Duane had met. The sixth man sat so much in the shadow that he could not
be plainly discerned, and, though addressed, his name was not mentioned.

Panhandle Smith carried pots and pans into the cabin, and cheerfully
called out: "If you gents air hungry fer grub, don't look fer me to feed
you with a spoon."

The outlaws piled inside, made a great bustle and clatter as they sat to
their meal. Like hungry men, they talked little.

Duane waited there awhile, then guardedly got up and crept round to
the other side of the cabin. After he became used to the dark again
he ventured to steal along the wall to the window and peeped in. The
outlaws were in the first room and could not be seen.

Duane waited. The moments dragged endlessly. His heart pounded.
Longstreth entered, turned up the light, and, taking a box of cigars
from the table, he carried it out.

"Here, you f