nstead of having shot up a casual idiot, I've killed Ned
Bannister's right-hand man. That will be the excuse--shooting Morgan.
But the real trouble is that I won the championship belt from your
cousin. He already hated y'u like poison, and he don't love me any too
hard. He will have us arrested by his sheriff here. Catch the point.
Y'U'RE NED BANNISTER, THE OUTLAW, AND I'M HIS RIGHT-BOWER. That's the
play he's going to make, and he's going to make it right soon."

"I don't care if he does. We'll fight him on his own ground. We'll prove
that he's the miscreant and not us."

"Prove nothing," snarled McWilliams. "Do y'u reckon he'll give us a
chance to prove a thing? Not on your life. He'll have us jailed first
thing; then he'll stir up a sentiment against us, and before morning
there will be a lynchingbee, and y'u and I will wear the neckties. How
do y'u like the looks of it?"

"But y'u have a lot of friends. They won't stand for anything like
that."

"Not if they had time to stop it. Trouble is, fellow's friends think
awful slow. They'll arrive in time to cut us down and be the mourners.
No, sir! It's a hike for Jimmie Mac on the back of the first bronc he
can slap a saddle on."

Bannister frowned. "I don't like to run before the scurvy scoundrels."

"Do y'u suppose I'm enjoying it? Not to any extent, I allow. But that
sweet relative of yours holds every ace in the deck, and he'll play
them, too. He owns the law in this man's town, and he owns the lawless.
But the best card he holds is that he can get a thousand of the best
people here to join him in hanging the 'king' of the Shoshone outlaws.
Explanations nothing! Y'u rode under the name of Bannister, didn't y'u?
He's Jack Holloway."

"It does make a strong combination," admitted the sheepman.

"Strong! It's invincible. I can see him playing it, laughing up his
sleeve all the time at the honest fools he is working. No, sir! I draw
out of a game like that. Y'u don't get a run for your money."

"Of course he knows already what has happened," mused Bannister.

"Sure he knows. That fellow with Morgan made a bee-line for him. Just
about now he's routing the sheriff out of his bed. We got no time to
lose. Thing is, to burn the wind out of this town while we have the
chance."

"I see. It won't help us any to be spilling lead into a sheriff's posse.
That would ce'tainly put us in the wrong."

"Now y'u're shouting. If we're honest men why don't we surrender
peacea