hat the law calls them."

"Oh Lord," groaned the Texan inwardly. "If I can steer through all
this without ridin' into my own loop, I'll be some liar. This on top
of what I told 'em in Wolf River, an' since, an' about Purdy's
funeral--I dastn't bog down, now!"

"No," he answered, as he lighted another cigarette. "There comes in
your politics again. You see, there was twenty-some-odd of us--an'
none friendless. Take twenty-odd votes an' multiply 'em by the number
of friends each has got--an' I reckon ten head of friends apiece
wouldn't overshoot the figure--an' you've got between two hundred an'
three hundred votes--which is a winnin' majority for any candidate
among 'em. Knowin' this, they wink at the jail delivery an' cinch
those votes. But, as I said before, hangin' is always a popular
measure, an' as they want credit for yourn, they start all the deputies
they got out on a still-hunt for you, judgin' it not to be hard to find
a pilgrim wanderin' about at large. An' this party I met up with was
one of 'em."

"Did he suspect that we were with you?" asked Alice, her voice
trembling with anxiety.

"Such was the case--his intimation bein' audible, and venomous. I
denied it in kind, an' one word leadin' to another, he called me a
liar. To which statement, although to a certain extent veracious, I
took exception, an' in the airy persiflage that ensued, he took umbrage
to an extent that it made him hostile. Previous to this little
altercation, he an' I had been good friends, and deemin', rightly, that
it wasn't a shootin' matter, he ondertook to back up his play with his
fists, and he hauled off an' smote me between the eyes before I'd
devined his intentions. Judgin' the move unfriendly, not to say right
downright aggressive, I come back at him with results you-all noted.
An' that's all there was to the incident of me showin' up with black
eyes, an' a lip that would do for a pin cushion."

All during supper and afterward while the half-breed was washing the
dishes, the Texan eyed him sharply, and several times caught the flash
of a furtive smile upon the habitually sombre face.

"He knows somethin' mirthful," thought the cowboy, "I noticed it
particular, when I was flounderin' up to my neck in the mire of
deception. The old reprobate ain't easy amused, either."

Alice retired early, and before long Endicott, too, sought his
blankets. The moon rose, and the Texan strolled over to the grazing
horses. Ret