ink this fellow Rathburn is The Coyote?" demanded
Mannix.

"Carlisle knows him by sight, and he told me."

"Then why didn't you tell me?" the deputy asked sternly.

"Because Carlisle didn't tell me until after I told him what I'd
done," Sautee evaded. "Then I didn't have the--ah--nerve, under the
circumstances, to come to you with the news. At that, I thought he
might go through with it."

Mannix swore softly. "Giving a pay-roll messenger's job to a man who's
got a price on his head a mile long!" he exclaimed savagely. "Why
didn't Carlisle come to me?"

Sautee shrugged. "I'm not responsible for Carlisle. Maybe he didn't
feel sure of it, and maybe he's just naturally jealous of The Coyote
and wants to bring him in himself. Carlisle is a gunman, as you know,
and a good one."

"I know it," snapped out Mannix; "and I know both Carlisle an' you are
a pair of bunglers. I guess you wanted to show me up, but you've gone
about it in a way that won't get you anything nor hurt me, I'll see to
that."

Sautee smiled as the deputy hurried out of the room.

In a few minutes Mannix returned fully dressed and carrying a rifle.
The deputy's face was severe, and his eyes burned with the fire of the
man hunt. He signaled impatiently to the mine manager to follow him.
As they walked across the little porch and around to the rear of the
house where Mannix kept his car the deputy talked fast.

"I'm goin' up to the hogback. He ain't had start enough to get up
there yet on a horse, an' I'll beat him to it. It'll be daylight in
about two hours, an' I'll be there till daylight. If you think you can
do it, get out some of the men an' cover the trails to the mine on
horses. He might try to get over that way. Then you better take your
car and go up to the mine by the road as fast as you can to tell 'em
to be on the lookout. Watch out on the hogback, for I'll be up there,
parked with my lights out."

He had reached his small garage when he finished giving his
instructions, and Sautee, with a promise to do as he had been told as
quickly as possible, ran down the street toward the Red Feather, where
a light still shone.

The news that The Coyote and Rathburn were one and the same, and that
he had robbed the mining company that night and was probably
responsible for the other holdups, created an immediate sensation
among the few gamblers in the resort. Sautee added to the excitement
by quoting rewards at random, and the forming of two pos