I heard
them while I was layin' here. They thought they'd croaked me, an' they
wasn't botherin' with me.

"One of them waved a blanket--or a tarp. I couldn't get what it was.
Anyway, they waved somethin' an' got the herd started. I heard them
talkin' about seein' Soapy go under, right at the start. An' you.
Dale said he saw you go down, an' it wasn't no use to look for you.
They sure played hell, boss."

Sanderson did not answer.

"If you'd lift my head a little higher, boss, I'd feel easier, mebbe,"
Sogun smiled feebly. "An' if it ain't too much trouble I'd like a
little more of that water--I'm powerful thirsty."

Sanderson went to the river, and when he returned Sogun was stretched
out on his back, his face upturned with a faint smile upon it.

Sanderson knelt beside him, lifted his head and spoke to him. But
Sogun did not answer.

Sanderson rose and stood with bowed head for a long time, looking down
at Sogun. Then he mounted Streak and headed him into the moonlit space
that lay between the camp and the Double A ranchhouse.

It was noon the next day when Sanderson returned with a dozen Double A
men. After they had labored for two hours the men mounted their horses
and began the return trip, one of them driving the chuck wagon.

All of the men were bitter against Dale for what had happened, and
several of them were for instant reprisal.

But Sanderson stared grimly at them.

"There ain't any witnesses," he said, "not a damned one! My word don't
go in Okar. Besides, it's my game, an' I'm goin' to play her a lone
hand--as far as Dale is concerned."

"You goin' to round up what's left of the cattle?" asked a puncher.

Sanderson answered shortly: "Not any. There wasn't enough left to make
a fuss about, an' Dale can have them."

CHAPTER XXI

A MAN BORROWS MONEY

The incident of Devil's Hole had changed the character of the fighting
between Sanderson and Dale. Dale and his fellow-conspirators had
deserted that law upon which, until the incident of Devil's Hole, they
had depended. They had resorted to savagery, to murder; they had
committed themselves to a course that left Sanderson no choice except
to imitate them.

And Sanderson was willing. More, he was anxious. He had respected the
law; and still respected it. But he had never respected the law
represented by his three enemies. He was determined to avenge the
murder of his men, but in his own time and in his own way.

His sou