ss.

"Sure. The gang didn't dare raise a finger to him. They might have put a
bullet through him any time, or a knife, and made a safe get-away, but
then they'd have had to desert the claims, which wasn't their game at all.
Darn good stunt to remember, ain't it, if a person ever got up against
that sort of thing?"

There was no direct reply to the half-question, and Buck shot a glance at
his companions. Lynch rode slightly behind him and was out of the line of
vision. McCabe, with face averted, bent over fussing with his
saddle-strings. The sight of Doc Peters's face, however, pale, strained,
with wide, frightened eyes and sagging jaw, told Stratton that his thrust
had penetrated as deeply as he could have hoped.

"We'll start here."

It was Lynch's voice, curt and harsh, that broke the odd silence as he
jerked his horse up and dismounted. "Get yore tools out an' don't waste
any time."

There was no mistaking his mood, and in the hours that followed he was a
far from agreeable taskmaster. He snapped and growled and swore at them
impartially, acting generally like a bear with a sore ear whom nothing can
please. If he could be said to be less disagreeable to anyone, it was,
curiously enough, Bud Jessup, whom he kept down at one end of the line
most of the afternoon. Later Stratton discovered the reason.

"It worked fine," Bud whispered to him jubilantly, when they were alone
together for a few minutes after supper. "Did yuh see him hangin' around
me this afternoon? He was grouchin' around and pretendin' to be mad
because he'd let yuh go to town this mornin' just to mail a letter to some
fool girl."

"Of course I pulled the baby stare an' told him I didn't see no letter to
no girl. Yuh sure didn't mail one while I was with yuh, I says.

"'Didn't mail no letter at all?' he wants to know, scowlin'."

"'Sure,' I says. 'Only it went to Jim Hardenberg over to Perilla. I seen
him hand it to old Pop Daggett, who was peevish as a wet hen 'cause he
couldn't find out nothin' about what was in it, 'count of Buck hangin'
around till it got on the train. That's the only letter I seen.'

"He didn't have no more to say, but walked off, scowlin' fierce. I'll bet
yuh my new Stetson to a two-bit piece, Buck, he rides in to town mighty
quick to find out what Pop knows about it."

Stratton did not take him up, for it had already occurred to him that such
a move on Lynch's part was almost certain. As a matter of fact the foreman
d