Pilgrim and found that he was not
armed, and he was given to understand that he would be expected to
stay around town until the coroner came and "sat" on the case. But
he was treated to drinks right and left, and when Billy went to find
Flora the Pilgrim was leaning heavily upon the bar with a glass in his
hand and his hat far back on his head, declaiming to the crowd that
he was perfectly harmless so long as he was left alone. But he wasn't
safe to monkey with, and any man who came at him hunting trouble would
sure get all he wanted and then some. He said he didn't kill people if
he could help it--but a man was plumb obliged to, sometimes.

"I'm sure surprised to think I got off with m' life, last winter, when
I hazed him away from line-camp; I guess I must uh had a close call,
all right!" Billy snorted contemptuously and shut the door upon the
wordy revelation of the Pilgrim's deep inner nature which had been
until that night carefully hidden from an admiring world.

The dance stopped abruptly with the killing; people were already going
home. Billy, with the excuse that he would be wanted at the inquest,
hunted up Jim Bleeker, gave him charge of the round-up for a few days,
and told him what route to take. For himself, he meant to ride home
with Flora or know the reason why.

"Come along, Dilly, and let's get out uh town," he urged, when he had
found him. "It's a kinda small burg, and at the rate the Pilgrim is
swelling up over what he done, there won't be room for nobody but him
in another hour. He's making me plumb nervous and afraid to be around
him, he's so fatal."

"We'll go at once, William. Walland is drinking a great deal more
than he should, but I don't think he means to be boastful over so
unfortunate an affair. Do you think you are taking an altogether
unprejudiced view of the matter? Our judgment," he added
deprecatingly, "is so apt to be warped by our likes and dislikes."

"Well, if that was the case here," Billy told him shortly, "I've got
dislike enough for him to wind my judgment up like a clock spring.
I'll go see if Flora and her mother are ready." In that way he avoided
discussing the Pilgrim, for Dill was not so dull that he failed to
take the hint.

CHAPTER XVII.

_The Shadow Darkens_.

The inquest resulted to the satisfaction of those who wished well to
the Pilgrim, for it cleared him of all responsibility for the killing.
Gus Svenstrom had been drunk; he had been heard to make