Well, why the devil should I help you stand off that bunch, then?
They're after you, not me."

"Has anybody asked you to?" Gerald retorted. "And nobody asked you to
come with us, if it comes to that."

"You had the fear of God in your heart and you begged to come," Larry
told him. "You say you shot up Mackay, but you wouldn't tell why. And
now, when things are getting hot, you want to quit and sneak off by
yourself. I know what you're thinking. Quit and be damned, then! You
never were any good. You never had the sand of a white rabbit."

Blake blustered, cursing his younger brother. The latter leaped to his
feet. But Gavin interposed.

"Sit down, Larry. Blake, do you want to quit us? If you do, say so.
There are no strings on you."

"If I did want to, I couldn't," Blake growled. "You know blame' well I
haven't got any money."

Gavin eyed him in silence for a moment.

"I'll fix the money part," he said. Reaching into his warbag he drew
forth a package of bills. He split it in half without counting, tossing
one half to Blake as he would have tossed a bone to a dog. "There you
are! Anything else?"

"Well, I don't want--" Blake began, but Gavin cut him short.

"You needn't lie. I've seen this in the back of your mind for days.
You'll go now, whether you want to or not! Our trails fork in the
morning, and you play your own hand. But if you try to save your hide by
helping that bunch back there, I'll kill you. And that's cold!"

Blake could not meet the cold blue eyes that bored into his.

"You held out on me in the first place," he said. "This is your show,
not mine."

"You--" Larry began.

"Shut up!" said Gavin. "Let him alone. Take what grub you want in the
morning, Blake, and go your own way. And now I'm going to sleep."

He rolled his blanket around him and lay down. Gerald and Larry followed
his example. Blake, to show his indifference, set by the fire for a
time, smoking sullenly; but soon he too turned in.

It was dark when he awoke, but Gavin was already cooking breakfast,
Larry and Gerald rolling blankets. He shared the meal, but nobody spoke
to him. Larry brought in three horses, but Blake had to go for his own.
Fresh snow, fallen in the night, lay on the ground, but it was merely a
skift which would go with the sun.

The east was rose and gold when they mounted. High to the westward the
sun, as yet invisible, struck the eastern face of a great snow-wrapped
peak, playing on it dazzlingly. The co