cowboy with an evil leer: "Ah-ha, I've got it now!" he
moved a step nearer. "I was at the dance night before last to Wolf
River." He waited to note the effect of the words on his hearer.

"Did you have a good time? Or did the dollar you had to shell out for
the ticket spoil all the fun?"

"Never mind what kind of a _time_ I had. But they's plenty of us knows
you was the head leader of the gang that took an' lynched that pilgrim."

"That's right," smiled the man coolly. "Beats the devil, how things
gets spread around, don't it? An' speakin' of news spreading that
way--I just came up the creek from down below the canyon. You must
have had quite a bit of water in your reservoir when she let go,
Johnson, judgin' by results."

"What do you mean?"

"You ain't be'n down the creek, then?"

"No, I ain't. I'm goin' now. I had to git the men to work fixin' the
dam."

"What I mean is this! There's about fifty head of cattle, more or
less, that's layin' sprinkled around on top of the mud. Amongst which
I seen T U brands, and I X, an' D bar C, an' quite a few nester brands.
When your reservoir let go she sure raised hell with other folks'
property. Of course, bein' away down there where there ain't any
folks, if I hadn't happened along it might have been two or three weeks
before any one would have rode through, an' you could have run a bunch
of ranch hands down an' buried 'em an' no one would have be'n any
wiser----"

"You're lyin'!" There was a look of fear in the man's eyes,

Tex shrugged: "You'll only waste a half a day ridin' down to see for
yourself," he replied indifferently.

Johnson appeared to consider, then stepped close to the Texan's side:
"They say one good turn deserves another. Meanin' that you shet up
about them cattle an' I'll shet up about seein' you."

"That way, it wouldn't cost you nothin' would it, Johnson? Well, it's
a trade, if you throw in the aforementioned articles of outfit I
specified, to boot."

"Not by a damn sight! You got the best end of it the way it is.
Lynchin' is murder!"

"So it is," agreed the Texan. "An' likewise, maintainin' weak
reservoirs that lets go an' drowns other folks' cattle is a public
nuisance, an' a jury's liable to figger up them damages kind of
high--'specially again' you, Johnson, bein' ornery an' rotten-hearted,
an' tight-fisted, that way, folks don't like you."

"It means hangin' fer you!"

"Yes. But it means catchin' first. I can be a