“Murder ain’t proved on Butch and his men, but it will be before long.”

“Wait till it’s proved.  In the meantime use em all.”

“You’ve a long head, Nash.”

“Glendin, I’m makin’ the biggest play of my life.  I’m off to find Butch.  You’ll stand firm with Drew?”

“I won’t hear a word he says.”

“S’long!  Be back in ten minutes.  Wait for me.”

He was as good as his word.  Even before the ten minutes had elapsed he was back, and behind followed a crew of heavy thumping boots up the stairs of Glendin’s house and into the room where he sat with Dr. Young and Shorty Kilrain.  They rose, but not from respect, when Nash entered with Conklin and his four ill-famed followers behind.

The soiled bandage on the head of Butch was far too thick to allow his hat to sit in its normal position.  It was perched high on top, and secured in place by a bit of string which passed from side to side under the chin.  Behind him came Lovel, an almost albino type with straw-coloured hair and eyes bleached and passionless; the vacuous smile was never gone from his lips.

More feared and more hated than Conklin himself was Isaacs.  The latter, always fastidious, wore a blue-striped vest, without a coat to obscure it, and about his throat was knotted a flaming vermilion necktie, fastened in place with a diamond stickpin—­obviously the spoil of some recent robbery.  Glendin, watching, ground his teeth.

McNamara followed.  He had been a squatter, but his family had died of a fever, and McNamara’s mind had been unsettled ever since; whisky had finished the work of sending him on the downward path with Conklin’s little crew of desperadoes.  Men shrank from facing those too-bright, wandering eyes, yet it was from pity almost as much as horror.

Finally came Ufert.  He was merely a round-faced boy of nineteen, proud of the distinguished bad company he kept.  He was that weak-minded type which is only strong when it becomes wholly evil.  With a different leadership he would have become simply a tobacco-chewing hanger-on at cross-roads saloons and general merchandise stores.  As it was, feeling dignified by the brotherhood of crime into which he had been admitted as a full member, and eager to prove his qualifications, he was as dangerous as any member of the crew.

The three men who were already in the room had been prepared by Glendin for this new arrival, but the fact was almost too much for their credence.  Consequently they rose, and Dr. Young muttered at the ear of Glendin:  “Is it possible, Deputy Glendin, that you’re going to use these fellows?”

“A thief to catch a thief,” whispered Glendin in reply.

He said aloud:  “Butch, I’ve been looking for you for a long time, but I really never expected to see you quite as close as this.”

“You’ve said it,” grinned Butch, “I ain’t been watchin’ for you real close, but now that I see you, you look more or less like a man should look.  H’ware ye, Glendin?”