was close to sunset time when they reached the old Salton place,
where they found Silent sitting on the porch with Haines, Kilduff,
Jordan, and Rhinehart. They stood up at sight of the newcomers and
shouted a welcome. Buck waved his hand, but his thoughts were not for
them. The music he had heard Dan whistle formed in his throat. It
reached his lips not in sound but as a smile.

At the house he swung from the saddle and shook hands with Jim Silent.
The big outlaw retained Buck's fingers.

"You're comin' in mighty late," he growled, "Didn't you get the
signal?"

Buck managed to meet the searching eyes.

"I was doin' better work for you by stayin' around the house," he
said.

"How d'you mean?"

"I stayed there to pick up things you might want to know. It wasn't
easy. The boys are beginnin' to suspect me."

"The cowpunchers is gettin' so thick around those parts," broke in
Purvis, "that Buck wouldn't even let me go back to his house with him
to get my gun."

The keen eyes of Silent never left the face of Daniels.

"Don't you know that Gus Morris gives us all the news we need, Buck?"

Rhinehart and Jordan, who were chatting together, stopped to listen.
Buck smiled easily.

"I don't no ways doubt that Morris tells you all he knows," he said,
"but the pint is that he don't know everything."

"How's that?"

"The rangers is beginnin' to look sidewise an' whisper when Morris
is around. He's played his game with us too long, an' the boys are
startin' to think. Thinkin' is always dangerous."

"You seem to have been doin' some tall thinkin' yourself," said Silent
drily; "you guess the cowpunchers are goin' on our trail on their own
hook?"

"There ain't no doubt of it."

"Where'd you hear it?"

"Young Seaton."

"He's one of them?"

"Yes."

"I'll remember him. By the way, I see you got a little token of
Whistlin' Dan on your arm."

He pointed to the bandage on Buck's right forearm.

"It ain't nothin'," said Buck, shrugging his shoulders. "The cuts are
all healin' up. The arm's as good as ever now."

"Anyway," said Silent, "you got somethin' comin' to you for the play
you made agin that devil."

He reached into his pocket, drew out several twenty dollar gold pieces
(money was never scarce with a lone rider) and passed them to Buck.
The latter received the coin gingerly, hesitated, and then returned it
to the hand of the chief.

"What the hell's the matter?" snarled the big outlaw. "Ain't it
enough