"southwest o' Dodge. Yuh no take me there.
Too far."

Kid Wolf knew that the killer was right. Still, on the prairie, men
make their own commandments.

"Theah's a new town, I hear, not far from heah--Midway, I think they
call it," he drawled. "Yo're goin' theah with me, and if theah's no
law in Midway, I'll see that some laws are passed. And yo' won't need
that, eithah!" he added suddenly.

The knife that the half-breed had attempted to draw tinkled to the
ground as The Kid gave the treacherous wrist a quick twist.

"Step along, Blizzahd," sang out Kid Wolf in his Southern drawl. "Back
to the trail, as soon as we get a drink of watah, then no'th!"

At the mention of Midway, the half-breed's expression had changed to
one of snakelike cunning. But if The Kid noted his half-concealed
smile, he paid no attention to it. They were soon on their way.

Always, even in the savage lands beyond civilization, Kid Wolf tried to
take sides with the weak against the strong, with the right against the
wrong. And on more than one occasion he had found himself in hot water
because of it.

The average man of the plains, upon seeing the murder committed, would
have considered it none of his business, and would have let well enough
alone. Another type would have killed the half-breed on general
principles. Kid Wolf however, determined that the murderer would be
given a fair trial and then punished.

Again striking the Chisholm Trail--a well-beaten road several hundred
yards wide--he veered north. Thousands upon thousands of longhorns
from Texas and New Mexico had beaten that trail. This was the halfway
point. Kid Wolf had heard of a new settlement in the vicinity, and,
judging from the landmarks, he estimated it to be only a few miles
distant.

In the meantime, the sun went down, creeping over the level horizon to
leave the world in shadows which gradually deepened into dusk. All the
while, the half-breed maintained a stoical silence. Kid Wolf, keeping
a careful eye on him, but ignoring him otherwise, hummed a fragment of
song:

"Oh, theah's hombres poison mean, on the Rio!
And theah's deadly men at Dodge, no'th o' Rio!
And to-day, from what I've seen,
Theah's some bad ones in between,
And I aim to keep it clean, beyond the Rio!"

Stars began to twinkle cheerily in the black vault overhead. Then The
Kid made out a few points of yellow light on the plain ahead of them.

"That must be Midway,"