ants to go for his gun. Do you understand that?"

"It's pretty plain English," replied Wiggate, manifestly concerned.

"And here's some more. Jard Hardman _was_ a horse thief," went on Pan
in rising passion. "He was a low-down yellow horse thief. He hired
men to steal for him. And by God, he wasn't half as white as the
outlaw who killed him!"

"Outlaw? I declare--we--I--Do you mean you're an--" floundered
Wiggate. "We understood you killed Hardman."

"Hell, no!" shouted Blinky, aflame with fury, bursting into the
argument. "We was all there. We saw--"

"Blink, you keep out of this till I ask you to talk," ordered Pan.

"Smith, I'd like to hear what he has to say."

"Wiggate, you listen to me first," rejoined Pan, with no lessening his
intensity. "There are three dead men across the field, not yet buried.
Hardman, his man Purcell, and the outlaw Mac New. He called himself
Hurd. He was one of Hardman's jailers there in Marco. But I knew Hurd
as Mac New, back in Montana. I saved him from being hanged."

Pan moistened lips too dry and too hot for his swift utterance, and
then he told in stern brevity the true details of that triple killing.
After concluding, with white face and sharp gesture, he indicated to
his men that they were to corroborate his statement.

"Mr. Wiggate, it's God's truth," spoke up Pan's father, earnestly. "It
was just retribution. Hardman robbed me years ago."

"Wal, Mr. Wiggate, my say is thet it'll be damned onhealthy fer anybody
who doesn't believe my pard," added Blinky, in slow dark menace.

Gus stepped forward without any show of the excitement that
characterized the others.

"If you need evidence other than our word, it's easy to find," he said.
"Mac New's gun was not the same caliber as Pan's. An' as the bullet
thet killed Hardman is still in his body it can be found."

"Gentlemen, that isn't necessary," replied Wiggate, hastily, with a
shudder. "Not for me. But my men can substantiate it. That might
sound well in Marco. For I believe that your young leader--Panhandle
Smith, they call him--is not so black as he has been painted."

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The following morning, while Pan was away for a few hours deer hunting,
Wiggate's men, accompanied by Blinky, attended to the gruesome detail
of burying the dead men.

Upon Pan's return he learned of this and experienced relief that
Wiggate had taken the responsibility. Wiggate had addressed him
several t