“Maybe a drink of water would help them lacerated pipes of yourn,” he suggested, “an’ besides it’s dark enough so you can start supper a-goin’.”

“But,” said Endicott, “won’t that get the boys all into serious trouble for aiding and abetting a prisoner to escape?  Accessories after the fact, is what the law calls them.”

“Oh Lord,” groaned the Texan inwardly.  “If I can steer through all this without ridin’ into my own loop, I’ll be some liar.  This on top of what I told ’em in Wolf River, an’ since, an’ about Purdy’s funeral—­I dastn’t bog down, now!”

“No,” he answered, as he lighted another cigarette.  “There comes in your politics again.  You see, there was twenty-some-odd of us—­an’ none friendless.  Take twenty-odd votes an’ multiply ’em by the number of friends each has got—­an’ I reckon ten head of friends apiece wouldn’t overshoot the figure—­an’ you’ve got between two hundred an’ three hundred votes—­which is a winnin’ majority for any candidate among ’em.  Knowin’ this, they wink at the jail delivery an’ cinch those votes.  But, as I said before, hangin’ is always a popular measure, an’ as they want credit for yourn, they start all the deputies they got out on a still-hunt for you, judgin’ it not to be hard to find a pilgrim wanderin’ about at large.  An’ this party I met up with was one of ’em.”

“Did he suspect that we were with you?” asked Alice, her voice trembling with anxiety.

“Such was the case—­his intimation bein’ audible, and venomous.  I denied it in kind, an’ one word leadin’ to another, he called me a liar.  To which statement, although to a certain extent veracious, I took exception, an’ in the airy persiflage that ensued, he took umbrage to an extent that it made him hostile.  Previous to this little altercation, he an’ I had been good friends, and deemin’, rightly, that it wasn’t a shootin’ matter, he ondertook to back up his play with his fists, and he hauled off an’ smote me between the eyes before I’d devined his intentions.  Judgin’ the move unfriendly, not to say right downright aggressive, I come back at him with results you-all noted.  An’ that’s all there was to the incident of me showin’ up with black eyes, an’ a lip that would do for a pin cushion.”

All during supper and afterward while the half-breed was washing the dishes, the Texan eyed him sharply, and several times caught the flash of a furtive smile upon the habitually sombre face.

“He knows somethin’ mirthful,” thought the cowboy, “I noticed it particular, when I was flounderin’ up to my neck in the mire of deception.  The old reprobate ain’t easy amused, either.”