Just then the other three men entered the cabin and Joan took advantage of the commotion they made to get out into the air.  She felt sick, frightened, and yet terribly enraged.  She staggered a little as she went out, and she knew she was as pale as death.  These visitors thrust reality upon her with a cruel suddenness.  There was something terrible in the mere presence of this Gulden.  She had not yet dared to take a good look at him.  But what she felt was overwhelming.  She wanted to run.  Yet escape now was infinitely more of a menace than before.  If she slipped away it would be these new enemies who would pursue her, track her like hounds.  She understood why Kells had introduced her as his wife.  She hated the idea with a shameful and burning hate, but a moment’s reflection taught her that Kells had answered once more to a good instinct.  At the moment he had meant that to protect her.  And further reflection persuaded Joan that she would be wise to act naturally and to carry out the deception as far as it was possible for her.  It was her only hope.  Her position had again grown perilous.  She thought of the gun she had secreted, and it gave her strength to control her agitation and to return to the cabin outwardly calm.

The men had Kells half turned over with the flesh of his back exposed.

“Aw, Gul, it’s whisky he needs,” said one.

“If you let out any more blood he’ll croak sure,” protested another.

“Look how weak he is,” said Red Pearce.

“It’s a hell of a lot you know,” roared Gulden.  “I served my time—­ but that’s none of your business. ...  Look here!  See that blue spot!” Gulden pressed a huge finger down upon the blue welt on Kells’s back.  The bandit moaned.  “That’s lead—­that’s the bullet,” declared Gulden.

“Wall, if you ain’t correct!” exclaimed Pearce.

Kells turned his head.  “When you punched that place—­it made me numb all over.  Gul, if you’ve located the bullet, cut it out.”

Joan did not watch the operation.  As she went away to the seat under the balsam she heard a sharp cry and then cheers.  Evidently the grim Gulden had been both swift and successful.

Presently the men came out of the cabin and began to attend to their horses and the pack-train.

Pearce looked for Joan, and upon seeing her called out, “Kells wants you.”

Joan found the bandit half propped up against a saddle with a damp and pallid face, but an altogether different look.

“Joan, that bullet was pressing on my spine,” he said.  “Now it’s out, all that deadness is gone.  I feel alive.  I’ll get well, soon. ...  Gulden was curious over the bullet.  It’s a forty-four caliber, and neither Bill Bailey nor Halloway used that caliber of gun.  Gulden remembered.  He’s cunning.  Bill was as near being a friend to this Gulden as any man I know of.  I can’t trust any of these men, particularly Gulden.  You stay pretty close by me.”