instinctively and by nature was an enemy; he would
have been their enemy in any other place and under any other
circumstances. He was a head-hunter, and in turn was to be hunted
down. He was the kind who neither made compromises nor asked quarter.
He veiled his purposes in as great secrecy as did they, and when he
struck it would be suddenly, fiercely, mercilessly--if he struck. They
were determined he should not strike, being himself first surprised
and crushed, for though in ignorance of what he could bring against
them their fears were real. Everything, indeed, about the man
antagonized them, alarmed them, stirred their hate and filmed their
eyes with blood. He must be destroyed.

"And with him the dam," Sorenson had said. "Both together." For there
was no effort to conceal among themselves their savage intention.

"He'll never come to trial," Vorse remarked, with a malignant gleam in
his blue eyes and a shutting of his thin lips. "An attempted jail
delivery by 'friends' will fix that. All they will have to do then is
to buy him a pine box."

"If the man had but stayed away!" Judge Gordon exclaimed. Cunning, not
force, was his forte; and the measures in prospect at times had
oppressed him with dreadful forebodings. He was growing old, feeble,
and here when he was entitled to peace he still had to fight for his
own.

In accordance with the scheme Burkhardt vanished from San Mateo for a
time, ostensibly on business but in fact on a journey across the
Mexican line, where he conducted negotiations with a certain
"revolucionista" of no particular notoriety as yet, of avaricious
character, unscrupulous nature, and with a small following of fellow
bandits and a large animosity for Americans. His ambition was to
emulate the brilliant Villa. But pickings had been poor of late, no
more than that of stealing a few horses from across the border. To
Burkhardt, who had heard of him and sought him out, he listened with
interest and bargained with zest. Five thousand in gold for fifty men
was like pearls from Paradise. And whatever this Yankee's own private
purpose, it was a chance for the chieftain to strike secretly and
safely at Americans, in addition.

"They will come through in squads after they've slipped across the
line," Burkhardt reported. "They're to pose as laborers."

"When?" Sorenson asked.

"Along next week. They're to drop off down along the railroad at
different towns and I'll run them up into the mountains