Partner, I've always played fair with you."

"So far as I know, Wickwire, yes. Why?"

"I've got a favor to ask."

"What is it--money?"

"No, partner, not money this time. You've always been more than
liberal with me. But so far I've had to keep under cover; you asked me
to. I want to ask the privilege now of coming out into the open. The
jig is up so far as watching anybody goes."

"Yes."

"There's nobody to watch any more--they're all to chase, I reckon,
now. The open is my kind of a fight, anyway. I want to ride out this
manhunt with you."

"How is your arm?"

"My arm is all right, and there ought to be a place for me in the
chase now that Ed Banks is out of it. I want to cut loose up on the
range, anyhow; if I'm a man I want to know it, and if I ain't I want
to know it. I want to ride with you after Seagrue and Sinclair and
Barney Rebstock."

Whispering Smith spoke coldly: "You mean, Wickwire, you want to get
killed."

"Why, partner, if it's coming to me, I don't mind--yes."

"What's the use, Wickwire?"

"If I'm a man I want to know it; if I ain't, it's time my friends
knowed it. Anyhow, I'm man enough to work out with some of that gang.
Most of them have put it over me one time or another; Sinclair pasted
me like a blackbird only the other day. They all say I'm nothing but a
damned tramp. You say I have done you service--give me a show."

Whispering Smith stopped a minute in the shadow of a tree and looked
keenly at him. "I'm too busy to-night to say much, Wickwire," he said
after a moment. "You go over to the barn and report to Bob Scott. If
you want to take the chances, it is up to you; and if Bob Scott is
agreeable, I'll use you where I can--that's all I can promise. You
will probably have more than one chance to get killed."

CHAPTER XXXVIII

INTO THE NORTH

The moon had not yet risen, and in the darkness of Boney Street Smith
walked slowly toward his room. The answer to his question had come.
The rescue of Seagrue made it clear that Sinclair would not leave the
country. He well knew that Sinclair cared no more for Seagrue than for
a prairie-dog. It was only that he felt strong enough, with his
friends and sympathizers, to defy the railroad force and Whispering
Smith, and planned now, probably, to kill off his pursuers or wear
them out. There was a second incentive for remaining: nearly all the
Tower W money had been hidden at Rebstock's cabin by Du Sang. That
Kennedy had already g