who looked in
at the back door," Gordon asserted. "We just caught sight of him and
couldn't make out his face against the light. Then he had skipped when
we ran there. We never did learn who he was."

"Do you think he remembers?" Sorenson said, scornfully. "He may be
dead. He may be on the other side of the world. Just some kid who
happened to drift by at the minute and look in, and there's not one
chance in a million he's anywhere around these parts yet. He would
have blabbed long ago to some one if he had been; don't figure him in,
he's lost."

"Saurez isn't, though."

At this Vorse put in a word.

"He saw more than one killing in those days when he was roustabout for
me. It was only one more to him. Probably he has forgotten it.
Anyway," Vorse ended with deadly emphasis, "he knows what would happen
to him even now if he remembered it and talked. Leave him out of the
calculation too."

"Then that just makes the four of us," said Burkhardt. "Nobody else.
So this fellow Weir doesn't know a thing."

"But we can't be absolutely sure," Judge Gordon replied.

"Well, he'd need proof, wouldn't he?"

"Certainly, to bring legal action. But how do we know he hasn't even
that? Look all around the question as a lawyer does; let us assume the
millionth chance, for instance. Suppose that he somewhere met and
became acquainted with that boy. Suppose that he learned the latter
had been here at the time and saw the shooting; and heard his story.
Suppose that Weir knows this instant where he is and can produce him
as a witness in court."

"I reckon in this county his testimony wouldn't count for much,"
Burkhardt, who had been sheriff, stated, with a harsh laugh.

Sorenson, however, was impressed by the Judge's reasoning, for he
drummed with fingers on the desk and sat in brooding silence. So
likewise sat Vorse, who had heard Weir's utterance and beheld his
face.

"He knows something," he repeated, in a convinced tone. "Or he's a
damned good bluffer."

"I passed him here at the door this afternoon," the banker remarked.
"I turned to look at him, guessing who he was, and he had stopped and
was looking at me. Cool about it too. We'll have to watch him."

"Perhaps if we just tip him off to keep his mouth shut tight, that
will be enough," Burkhardt suggested. "If he knows the four of us are
ready----"

Vorse sniffed.

"You think he can be bluffed?" he said. "You haven't seen him yet; go
take a look. We'll not throw any