“Say, Sam,” he drawled, in a tone that caused the deputy’s hair to prickle at its roots; “about some an’ sundry insultin’ remarks you passed agin’ the lady, yonder——­”

“No, I never——­”

“That’ll be about all the lyin’ you need to do now.  An’ just let this sink in.  You can lock up the pilgrim where you damn please.  But the lady goes to the hotel.  If you aim to hold her as a witness you can appoint a guard—­an’ I’m the guard.  D’you get me?  ’Cause if there’s any misunderstandin’ lingerin’ in them scrambled aigs you use fer brains, I’ll just start out by tellin’ the boys what a hell of a brave arrest you pulled off, an’ about the nervy stand you made agin’ odds to guard your prisoners when I yipped at you from the brush.  Then, after they get through havin’ their fun out of you, I’ll just waste a shell on you for luck—­see?”

“Sure, Tex, that sounds reasonable,” the other rattled on in evident relief.  “Fact is, I be’n huntin’ fer you ever sense I suspicioned they’d be’n a murder.  ‘If I c’d only find Tex,’ I says to myself, I says, ‘he’d be worth a hull posse hisself.’  Jest you go ahead an’ night-herd the lady.  I’ll tell her myself so’s it’ll be official.  An’ me an’ the rest of the boys here, we’ll take care of the pilgrim, which he ain’t no pilgrim at all, but a desperate desperado, or he couldn’t never have got Jack Purdy the way he done.”

The Texan grinned and, forcing his horse through the crowd, reached the girl’s side where he was joined a few moments later by the deputy.  Despite her embarrassing situation Alice Marcum could scarce restrain a smile at the officer’s sudden obsequious deference.  Stetson in hand, he bowed awkwardly.  “Excuse me, mom, but, as I was goin’ on to say in reference of any remarks I might of passed previous, I found out subsequent I didn’t mean what I was sayin’, which I misunderstood myself complete.  But as I was goin’ on to say, mom, the State of Montany might need you fer a witness in this here felonious trial, so if you’ll be so kind an’ go to the hotel along of Tex here whom he’s the party I’ve tolled off fer to guard you, an’ don’t stand no monkey business neither.  What I mean is,” he hastened to add, catching a glance from the Texan’s eye, “don’t be afraid to ask fer soap or towels if there hain’t none in yer room, an’ if yer cold holler fer an extry blanket er two.  The State’s a-payin’ fer it, an’ yer board, too, an’ if they don’t fill you up every meal you set up a yell an’ I’ll see ’t they do.”  The deputy turned abruptly away and addressed the cowboys:  “Come on, boys, let’s git this character under lock an’ key so I kin breathe easier.”

Even Endicott joined in the laugh that greeted the man’s words and, detaining a cowpuncher to ride on either side of the prisoner, the officer solemnly led the way toward town.

CHAPTER VIII

ONE WAY OUT