him."

"I'm sorry for 'em," said Dan gently. "I ain't got nothin' agin any
one except the big man."

Calder took a long breath.

"Don't you see," he explained carefully, "if you shoot one of these
men you are simply a murderer who must be apprehended by the law and
punished."

"It makes it bad for me, doesn't it?" said Dan. "An' I hope I won't
have to hurt more'n one or two of 'em. You see,"--he leaned forward
seriously towards Calder--"I'd only shoot for their arms or their
legs. I wouldn't spoil them altogether."

Calder threw up his hands in despair. Black Bart snarled at the
gesture.

"I can't listen no more," said Dan. "I got to start explorin' the
willows pretty soon."

"In the dark?" exclaimed Calder.

"Sure. Black Bart'll go with me. The dark don't bother him."

"I'll go along."

"I'd rather be alone. I might meet him."

"Any way you want," said Calder, "but first hear my plan--it doesn't
take long to tell it."

The darkness thickened around them while he talked. The fire died
out--the night swallowed up their figures.

CHAPTER XIII

THE LONE RIDERS ENTERTAIN

When Lee Haines rode into Silent's camp that evening no questions were
asked. Questions were not popular among the long riders. He did not
know more than the names of half the men who sat around the smoky
fire. They were eager to forget the past, and the only allusions
to former times came in chance phrases which they let fall at rare
intervals. When they told an anecdote they erased all names by
instinct. They would begin: "I heard about a feller over to the Circle
Y outfit that was once ridin'--" etc. As a rule they themselves were
"that feller over to the Circle Y outfit." Accordingly only a few
grunts greeted Haines and yet he was far and away the most popular man
in the group. Even solemn-eyed Jim Silent was partial to the handsome
fellow.

"Heard the whistling today?" he asked.

Purvis shook his head and Terry Jordan allowed "as how it was most
uncommon fortunate that this Barry feller didn't start his noise."
After this Haines ate his supper in silence, his ear ready to catch
the first sound of Kate's horse as it crashed through the willows and
shrubs. Nevertheless it was Shorty Rhinehart who sprang to his feet
first.

"They's a hoss there comin' among the willows!" he announced.

"Maybe it's Silent," remarked Haines casually.

"The chief don't make no such a noise. He picks his goin'," answered
Hal Purvis.

T