your hand, Jim."

Silent hesitated.

"I guess you got cause to be mad, Lee," he said. "Maybe I played too
quick a hand. I didn't think about double crossin' you. I only seen
a way to get Whistlin' Dan out of our path, an' I took it without
rememberin' that you was the safeguard to the girl."

Haines eyed his chief narrowly.

"I wish to God I could read your mind," he said at last, "but I'll
take your word that you did it without thinking."

His hand slowly met Silent's.

"An' what about the girl now, Lee?"

"I'll send her back to her father's ranch. It will be easy to put her
on the right way."

"Don't you see no reason why you can't do that?"

"Are you playing with me?"

"I'm talkin' to you as I'd talk to myself. If she's loose she'll
describe us all an' set the whole range on our trail."

Haines stared.

Silent went on: "If we can't turn her loose, they's only one thing
left--an' that's to take her with us wherever we go."

"On your honour, do you see no other way out?"

"Do you?"

"She may promise not to speak of it."

"There ain't no way of changin' the spots of a leopard, Lee, an' there
ain't no way of keepin' a woman's tongue still."

"How can we take a girl with us."

"It ain't goin' to be for long. After we pull the job that comes on
the eighteenth, we'll blow farther south an' then we'll let her go."

"And no harm will come to her while she's with us?"

"Here's my hand on it, Lee."

"How can she ride with us?"

"She won't go as a woman. I've thought of that. I brought out a new
outfit for Purvis from Elkhead--trousers, chaps, shirts, an' all. He's
small. They'll near fit the girl."

"There isn't any other way, Jim?"

"I leave it to you. God knows I don't want to drag any damn calico
aroun' with us."

As they went back towards their clearing they arranged the details.
Silent would take the men aside and explain his purpose to them.
Haines could inform the girl of what she must do. Just before they
reached the camp Silent stopped short and took Haines by the shoulder.

"They's one thing I can't make out, Lee, an' that's how Whistlin' Dan
made his getaway. I'd of bet a thousand bones that he would be dropped
before he could touch his shootin' irons. An' then what happened? Hal
Purvis jest flashed a gun--and that feller shot it out'n his hand.
I never seen a draw like that. His hand jest seemed to twitch--I
couldn't follow the move he made--an' the next second his gun went
off."