ainst the fading daylight.
They started up with curses; Rhinehart drew his gun.

"Wait a minute," ordered Silent.

"Damn it!" exclaimed Jordan, "don't you see Whistling Dan's wolf? If
the wolf's here, Dan isn't far behind."

Silent shook his head.

"If there's goin' to be any shootin' of that wolf leave it to Hal
Purvis. He's jest nacherally set his heart on it. An' Whistlin' Dan
ain't with the wolf. Look! there's a woman's glove hangin' out of his
mouth. He picked that up in the willows, maybe, an' followed the girl
here. Watch him!"

The wolf slunk across the room to the door which opened on Kate's
apartment. Kate threw the door open--cried out at the sight of
Bart--and then snatched up the glove he let drop at her feet.

"No cause for gettin' excited," said Silent. "Whistlin' Dan ain't
comin' here after the wolf."

For answer she slammed the door.

At the same moment Hal Purvis entered. He stepped directly to Silent,
and stood facing him with his hands resting on his hips. His smile was
marvellously unpleasant.

"Well," said the chief, "what's the news? You got eloquent eyes, Hal,
but I want words."

"The news is plain hell," said Purvis, "Haines--"

"What of him?"

"He's in Elkhead!"

"Elkhead?"

"Whistling Dan got him at Morris's place and took him in along with
the body of Tex Calder. Jim, you got to answer for it to all of us.
You went to Morris's with Lee. You come away without him and let him
stay behind to be nabbed by that devil Whistlin' Dan."

"Right," said Kilduff, and his teeth clicked. "Is that playin' fair?"

"Boys," said Silent solemnly, "if I had knowed that Whistlin' Dan was
there, I'd of never left Haines to stay behind. Morris said nothin'
about Calder havin' a runnin' mate. Me an' Haines was in the upstairs
room an' about suppertime up came a feller an' told us that Tex Calder
had jest come into the dinin'-room. That was all. Did Whistlin' Dan
get Lee from behind?"

"He got him from the front. He beat Lee to the draw so bad that Haines
hardly got his gun out of its leather!"

"The feller that told you that lied," said Silent. "Haines is as fast
with his shootin' iron as I am--almost!"

The rest of the outlaws nodded to each other significantly.

Purvis went on without heeding the interruption. "After I found out
about the fight I swung towards Elkhead. About five miles out of town
I met up with Rogers, the deputy sheriff at Elkhead. I thought you had
him fixed for us, J