He held out his hand, but the deputy, shifting his
position, seemed to overlook the grimy proffered palm.
“You fellows know that you’re wanted by
the law,” he said, frowning on them.
A grim meaning rose in the vacuous eye of Lovel; Isaacs
caressed his diamond pin, smiling in a sickly fashion;
McNamara’s wandering stare fixed and grew unhumanly
bright; Ufert openly dropped his hand on his gun-butt
and stood sullenly defiant.
“You know that you’re wanted, and you
know why,” went on Glendin, “but I’ve
decided to give you a chance to prove that you’re
white men and useful citizens. Nash has already
told you what we want. It’s work for seven
men against one, but that one man is apt to give you
all plenty to do. If you are—successful”—he
stammered a little over the right word—“what
you have done in the past will be forgotten. Hold
up your right hands and repeat after me.”
And they repeated the oath after him in a broken,
drawling chorus, stumbling over the formal, legal
phraseology.
He ended, and then: “Nash, you’re
in charge of the gang. Do what you want to with
them, and remember that you’re to get Bard back
in town unharmed—if possible.”
Butch Conklin smiled, and the same smile spread grimly
from face to face among the gang. Evidently this
point had already been elucidated to them by Nash,
who now mustered them out of the house and assembled
them on their horses in the street below.
“Which way do we travel?” asked Shorty
Kilrain, reining close beside the leader, as though
he were anxious to disestablish any relationship with
the rest of the party.
“Two ways,” answered Nash. “Of
course I don’t know what way Bard headed, because
he’s got the girl with him, but I figure it this
way: if a tenderfoot knows any part of the range
at all, he’ll go in that direction after he’s
in trouble. I’ve seen it work out before.
So I think that Bard may have ridden straight for
the old Drew place on the other side of the range.
I know a short cut over the hills; we can reach there
by morning. Kilrain, you’ll go there with
me.
“It may be that Bard will go near the old place,
but not right to it. Chances may be good that
he’ll put up at some place near the old ranchhouse,
but not right on the spot. Jerry Wood, he’s
got a house about tour or five miles to the north
of Drew’s old ranch. Butch, you take your
men and ride for Wood’s place. Then switch
south and ride for Partridge’s store; if we
miss him at Drew’s old house we’ll go on
and join you at Partridge’s store and then double
back. He’ll be somewhere inside that circle
and Eldara, you can lay to that. Now, boys, are
your hosses fresh?”
They were.
“Then ride, and don’t spare the spurs.
Hoss flesh is cheaper’n your own hides.”
The cavalcade separated and galloped in two directions
through the town of Eldara.
