rby took this without batting an eye. "An innocent man hasn't
anything to fear," he said.

"Hasn't he?" Olson picked up a stone and flung it at a pile of rocks
he had gathered fifty yards away. He was left-handed. "How do you
know he hasn't? Say, just for argument, I do know somethin'. Say I
practically saw Cunningham killed an' hadn't a thing to do with it.
Could I get away with a story like that? You know darned well I
couldn't. Wouldn't the lawyers want to know howcome I to be so handy
to the place where the killin' was, right at the very time it took
place, me who is supposed to have threatened to bump him off myself?
Sure they would. I'd be tyin' a noose round my own neck."

"Do you know who killed my uncle?" demanded Lane point-blank. "Did you
see it done?"

Olson's eyes narrowed. A crafty light shone through the slitted lids.
"Hold yore hawsses. I ain't said I knew a thing. Not a thing. I was
stringin' you."

Kirby knew he had overshot the mark. He had been too eager and had
alarmed the man. He was annoyed at himself. It would take time and
patience and finesse to recover lost ground. Shrewdly he guessed at
the rancher's state of mind. The man wanted to tell something, was
divided in mind whether to come forward as a witness or keep silent.
His evidence, it was clear enough, would implicate Hull; but, perhaps
indirectly, it would involve himself, too.

"Well, whatever it is you know, I hope you'll tell it," the cattleman
said. "But that's up to you, not me. If Hull is the murderer, I want
the crime fastened on him. I don't want him to get off scot free. An'
that's about what's goin' to happen. The fellow's guilty, I believe,
but we can't prove it."

"Can't we? I ain't sure o' that." Again, through the narrowed lids,
wary guile glittered. "Mebbe we can when the right time comes."

"I doubt it." Lane spoke casually and carelessly. "Any testimony
against him loses force if it's held out too long. The question comes
up, why didn't the witness come right forward at once. No, I reckon
Hull will get away with it--if he really did it."

"Don't you think it," Olson snapped out. "They've pretty nearly got
enough now to convict him."

The rough rider laughed cynically. "Convict him! They haven't enough
against him even to make an arrest. They've got a dozen times as much
against me an' they turned me loose. He's quite safe if he keeps his
mouth shut--an' he will."

Olson flun