d not understand, at first.

Lida came with him, trying to soothe him, pleading and protesting; he
constantly muttered broken speech and seemed to be trying to control a
mood that was half frenzy. He left her and stumbled across the open
space to Craig.

"Everything else you have done--it's nothing as bad as this last. You
sent her where you didn't dare to go yourself. Good God! you Comas
sneak, I ought to kill you where you sit! For all you cared you were
making me a murderer of an innocent girl!"

"You had to be stopped. She went before I knew what she was going to
do."

"And if she hadn't gone on her own account you would have tried to hire
her to do it! It's always a case of what you can buy with your
money--that's your style, Craig. Now you're up against something you
can't buy. I'm still working alone--understand that? If you want to
report me as an outlaw, go ahead! I'm giving you squarer warning than
you gave me on the Tomah when you smashed the Latisans. If I smash that
dam down there I'll be smashing you! I'll do it if you put as much as a
toothpick in the way of the independent drives. I'll blow the bottom out
of your canal, in the bargain. And if you think you or your gang can
locate me over there"--he pointed in the direction of the hills of the
watershed between the rivers basins--"try it! I know every hole in those
hills. I'll keep bombing your drives till you can't keep a man on the
job. That's the kind of an outlaw I am from now on."

"It's between us now, Latisan. I'll own up to it. It has come to that."

"Yes, it's between renegades. I'm admitting that I'm one," retorted
Ward.

Craig stood up. If there was any of the spirit of Three C's bluster left
in him he was concealing it successfully.

"Latisan, all these men have heard me say that I quit. I lost my head
and was pushing the thing too far, considering it from a business
standpoint. Can I be any more honest than that?"

"It sounds all right, but I take stock in you only to the extent that
you'll stay in line if I stay on the job. I shall stay, as I have warned
you."

"Suppose we talk turkey about the common rights at Skulltree!"

"You'll have to talk with Miss Kennard about her grandfather's
interests. I'm simply a chance comer here!"

Latisan walked away and leaned against a tree.

Craig approached Lida. "We have already had some talk about the matter,
I believe. I retreat from the position I have taken. Evidently we must
make mu