ting to a
chair, he said: "That's so. There it is, too--that there chair."

The Sweetwater outfit nodded in acquiescence, but the others looked
incredulous.

Buck sneered at the defense which Jack made. "Nobody saw you over that
way, did they?"

"I saw Terrill. It must have been just before he was killed. I didn't
meet anybody else." Jack showed no trace of temper under the
inquisition.

"Of course you saw him before he was killed--about a minute. Mebbe you
didn't plug him the next minute with a .44."

The charge roused Sage-brush's fighting blood. Drawing his gun, he
attempted to get a fair shot at the accuser. Fresno and Show Low
grabbed him by the arms, holding him back. The foreman shouted:
"There'll be some one plugged right now if you-all make another break
like that."

Slim waved his hands over his head, driving the men backward, as if he
were shooing away a flock of chickens.

"Easy now--easy," he drawled. "There ain't a-goin' to be nothin' doin'
here, 'cept law an' justice."

Buck laughed sneeringly at the wavering of his men. He would have to
do something to put more heart into them and regain the ground he had
lost by his single-handed conduct of the case.

"There ain't, eh?" he asked contemptuously. "Well, it's lucky I
brought some of my own outfit with me."

"Mebbe you'll need them if you get too careless with your talk,"
answered the unruffled Sheriff.

Turning to Jack, Slim said: "This fool thing can be settled with one
word from you."

The young ranchman listened to the Sheriff earnestly. He wished to
clear himself forever of all suspicion. He did not want Echo ever to
hear that there was a false impression abroad that she was the wife of
a slayer. "What is it?" he asked simply.

"Why, you paid off a mortgage of an even three thousan' dollars last
week, didn't you?"

"Yes, what has that to do with it?" he asked.

Buck broke in at this point. Here was the strongest card that he had
in his hand, and the Sheriff had played it to McKee's advantage.

"Plenty," Buck shouted. "Old Terrill was shot and killed and robbed,
an' the man who did it got just three thousan' dollars."

"An' you mean to say that the boss here--" began Sage-brush, in his
anger making a rush at McKee. He was held back, but the disturbance
attracted Echo and Mrs. Allen from the kitchen. Echo hurried to her
husband's side. He slipped his arm about her waist, and together they
faced his accuser.