l told Brit and Frank, they'd maybe get the nerve to try and
pin something on us. We've stole 'em blind for years, and they wouldn't
cry if we got hung. Besides, they was friendly with Fred.

"The girl and the Swede got in the way when I tried to bump Brit off.
I'd have gone into the canyon and finished him with a rock, but they
beat me to it. The girl herself I couldn't get at very well and make it
look accidental--and anyway, I never did kill a woman, and I'd hate it
like hell. I figured if her dad got killed, she'd leave.

"And let me tell you, folks, Warfield raised hell with me because Brit
Hunter wasn't killed when he pitched over the grade. He held out on me
for that job--so I'm collecting five hundred dollars' worth of fun right
now. He did say he'd pay me after Brit was dead, but it looks like he's
going to pull through, so I ain't counting much on getting my money outa
Warfield.

"Frank I got, and made a clean job of it. And yesterday morning the girl
played into my hands. She rode over to the Sawtooth, and I got her at
Thurman's place, on her way home, and figured I'd marry her and take a
chance on keeping her quiet afterwards. I'd have been down the Pass in
another two hours and heading for the nearest county seat. She'd have
married me, too. She knows I'd have killed her if she didn't--which I
would. I've been square with her--she'll tell you that. I told her, when
I took her, just what I was going to do with her. So that's all
straight. She's been scared, I guess, but she ain't gone hungry, and
she ain't suffered, except in her mind. I don't fight women, and I'll
say right now, to her and to you, that I've got all the respect in the
world for this little girl, and if I'd married her I'd have been as good
to her as I know how, and as she'd let me be.

"Now I want to tell you folks a few more things about Bill Warfield. If
you want to stop the damnest steal in the country, tie a can onto that
irrigation scheme of his. He's out to hold up the State for all he can
get, and bleed the poor devils of farmers white, that buys land under
that canal. It may look good, but it ain't good--not by a damn sight.

"Yuh know what he's figuring on doing? Get water in the canal, sell land
under a contract that lets him out if the ditch breaks, or something so
he _can't_ supply water at any time. And when them poor suckers gets
their crops all in, and at the point where they've got to have water or
lose out, something'll