"By to-night I'd have had her married to me, you damned fool.
And here you've blocked everything for me, afraid I was falling down on
my job!

"Now folks, lemme just tell you a few little things. I know my
limit--you've got me dead to rights. I ain't complaining about that; a
man in my game expects to get his, some day. But I ain't going to let
the man go that paid me my wages and a bonus of five hundred dollars
for every man I killed that he wanted outa the way.

"Hawkins knows that's a fact. He's foreman of the Sawtooth, and he
knows the agreement. I've got to say for Hawkins that aside from
stealing cattle off the nesters and helping make evidence against some
that's in jail, Hawkins never done any dirty work. He didn't have to.
They paid _me_ for that end of the business.

"I killed Fred Thurman--this girl, here, saw me shoot him. And it was
when I told Warfield I was afraid she might set folks talking that he
began to get cold feet. Up to then everything was lovely, but Warfield
began to crawfish a little. We figured--_we_ figured, emphasise the
_we_, folks,--that the Quirt would have to be put outa business. We
knew if the girl 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