The owner of the Wagon Rod brand attempted defense, a little sheepishly.
"What would you want us to do, Mollie? This fellow treated the girl
outrageous. She's liable to die because--"

"Die! Nonsense! She's not going to die any more than this Houck is." She
looked the Brown's Park man over contemptuously with chill, steady eyes.
"He's a bad egg. It wouldn't hurt my feelings any if you rode him outa
town on a rail, but I'm not going to have you-all mixed up in a lynching
when there's no need for it."

Larson stole a look around the circle of faces. On the whole he was glad
Mrs. Gillespie had come. It took only a few minutes to choke the life out
of a man, but there were many years left in which one might regret it.

"O' course, if you say Miss Tolliver ain't dangerous sick, that makes a
difference," he said.

"Don't see it," Tom Reeves differed. "We know what this fellow aimed to
do, an' how he drove her to the river to escape him. If you ask me, I'll
say--"

"But nobody's askin' you, Tom," Mollie cut into his sentence sharply.
"You're just a fool boy chasin' cows' tails for thirty dollars a month.
I'm not going to have any of this nonsense. Bear Cat's a law-abidin'
place. We're all proud of it. We don't let bad-men strut around an' shoot
up our citizens, an' we don't let half-grown punchers go crazy an' start
hangin' folks without reason. Now do we?" A persuasive smile broke out on
the harsh face and transformed it. Every waif, every under-dog, every
sick woman and child within fifty miles had met that smile and warmed to
it.

Reeves gave up, grinning. "I ain't such a kid either, Mrs. Gillespie, but
o' course you got to have yore way. We all know that. What d' you want us
to do with this bird?"

"Turn him over to Simp an' let him put the fellow in the jail. There's
just as good law right here as there is anywhere. I'd hate to have it go
out from here that Bear Cat can't trust the officers it elects to see
justice done. Don't you boys feel that way too?"

"Can't we even ride him outa town on a rail? You done said we might."

Mrs. Gillespie hesitated. Why not? It was a crude and primitive
punishment, but it would take drastic treatment to get under the hide of
this sneering bully who had come within an ace of ruining the life of
June Tolliver. The law could not touch him. He had not abducted her. She
had gone of her own volition. Unfulfilled intentions are not criminal
without an overt act. Was he to escape scot