r you're ready."

"Hold yore hawsses, friend," advised the ex-guerrilla, not unkindly.
"There's no occasion whatever for you to run on the rope. We are six to
two, countin' the kid, who's got about all he can carry for one day.
We're here askin' questions, an' it's reasonable for you to answer 'em."

"I have answered 'em. I'll answer all you want to ask. But I'd think you
would feel cheap to come kickin' about that fight. My friend fought fair.
You know best whether your friends did. He took 'em at odds of two to
one, an' at that one of your gunmen hunted cover. What's troublin you,
anyhow? Didn't you have all the breaks? Do you want an open an' shut
cinch?"

"You're quite a lawyer," replied Dumont, the man who found the climate of
Texas unhealthy. "I reckon it would take a good one to talk himself out
of the hole you're in."

Billie looked at the man and Dumont decided that he did not have a
speaking part in the scene. He was willing to remain one of the mob. In
point of fact, after what he had seen in the last few minutes, he was not
at all anxious to force the issue to actual battle. A good strong bluff
would suit him a great deal better. Even odds of six to two were not
good enough considering the demonstration he had witnessed.

"What is it you want? Another showdown?" asked Clanton unexpectedly.

Quantrell's man laughed. "I never did see such a fire-eater."

He turned to his companions. "I told you how it would be. We can't prove
a thing against the kid except that he was lookin' for a fight an' got
it. He played the hand that was dealt him an' he played it good. I reckon
we'll have to let him go this time, boys."

"We'll make a mistake if we do," differed Sanders.

"You'll make one if you don't," said Prince pointedly.

He stood poised, every nerve and muscle set to a hair-trigger for swift
action. Of those facing him not one of the six but knew they would have
to pay the price before they could exact vengeance for the death of the
Roush brothers.

"What's the use of beefing?" grumbled a one-armed puncher in the rear.
"They shot up three of our friends. What more do you want?"

"Don't be in a hurry, Albeen," advised Billie. "It's easy to start
something. We all know you burn powder quick. You're a sure-enough bad
man. But I've got a hunch it's goin' to be your funeral as well as mine
if once the band begins to play."

"That so?" replied Albeen with heavy sarcasm. "You talk like you was
holdin' a ro