ble? That's the play the 'king' is going to make in this town. Now
if we should spoil a posse and bump off one or two of them, we couldn't
pile up evidence enough to get a jury to acquit. No, sir! We can't
surrender and we can't fight. Consequence is, we got to roll our tails
immediate."

"We have an appointment with Miss Messiter and Nora for to-morrow
morning. We'll have to leave word we can't keep it."

"Sure. Denver and Missou are playing the wheel down at the Silver
Dollar. I reckon we better make those boys jump and run errands for us
while we lie low. I'll drop in casual and give them the word. Meet y'u
here in ten minutes. Whatever y'u do, keep that mask on your face."

"Better meet farther from the scene of trouble. Suppose we say the north
gate of the grand stand?"

"Good enough. So-long."

The first faint streaks of day were beginning to show on the horizon
when Bannister reached the grand stand. He knew that inside of another
half-hour the little frontier town would be blinking in the early
morning sunlight that falls so brilliantly through the limpid
atmosphere. If they were going to leave without fighting their way out
there was no time to lose.

Ten minutes slowly ticked away.

He glanced at his watch. "Five minutes after four. I wish I had gone
with Mac. He may have been recognized."

But even as the thought flitted through his mind, the semi-darkness
opened to let a figure out of it.

"All quiet along the Potomac, seh?" asked the foreman's blithe voice.
"Good. I found the boys and got them started." He flung down a Mexican
vaquero's gaily trimmed costume.

"Get into these, seh. Denver shucked them for me. That coyote must have
noticed what we wore before he slid out. Y'u can bet the orders are to
watch for us as we were dressed then."

"What are y u going to do?"

"Me? I'm scheduled to be Aaron Burr, seh. Missou swaps with me when he
gets back here. They're going to rustle us some white men's clothes,
too, but we cayn't wear them till we get out of town on account of
showing our handsome faces."

"What about horses?"

"Denver is rustling some for us. Y'u better be scribbling your billy-doo
to the girl y'u leave behind y'u, seh."

"Haven't y'u got one to scribble?" Bannister retorted. "Seems to me y'u
better get busy, too."

So it happened that when Missou arrived a few minutes later he found
this pair of gentlemen, who were about to flee for their lives, busily
inditing what McWill