the early hours of the morning they rode again to the
Diamond K ranchhouse, thinking that perhaps Trevison had slipped by them
and returned. But Trevison had not returned, and the outfit gathered in
the timber near the house in the faint light of the breaking dawn,
disgusted, their horses jaded.

"It's mighty hard work tryin' to be an outlaw in this damned dude-ridden
country," wailed the disappointed Weaver. "Outlaws usual have a den or a
cave or a mountain fastness, or somethin', anyhow--accordin' to all the
literchoor I've read on the subject. If 'Firebrand's' got one, he's mighty
bashful about mentionin' it."

"Oh, Lord!" exclaimed Barkwell, weakly. "My brains is sure ready for the
mourners! Where's 'Firebrand'? Why, where would you expect a man to be
that'd burned up a courthouse an' a bank an' salivated a banker? He'd be
hidin' out, wouldn't he, you mis'able box-head! Would he come driftin'
back to the home ranch, an' come out when them damn deputies come along,
bowin' an' scrapin' an' sayin': 'I'm here, gentlemen--I've been waitin'
for you to come an' try rope on me, so's you'd be sure to get a good fit!'
Would he? You're mighty right he--wouldn't! He'd be populatin' that old
pueblo that he's been tellin' me for years would make a good fort!" His
horse leaped as he drove the spurs in, cruelly, but at the distance of a
hundred yards he was not more than a few feet in advance of the
others--and they, disregarding the rules of the game--were trying to pass
him.

* * * * *

"There ain't a bit of sense of takin' any risk," objected Levins from the
security of the communal chamber, as Trevison peered cautiously around a
corner of the adobe house. "It'd be just the luck of one of them critters
if they'd pot you."

"I'm not thinking of offering myself as a target for them," the other
laughed. "They're still there," he added a minute later as he stepped into
the chamber. "Them shooting you as they did, without warning, seems to
indicate that they've orders to wipe us out, if possible. They're
deputies. I bumped into Corrigan right after I left the bank building, and
I suppose he has set them on us."

"I reckon so. Seems it ain't possible, though," Levins added, doubtfully.
"They was here before you come. Your Nigger horse ain't takin' no dust. I
reckon you didn't stop anywheres?"

"At the Bar B." Trevison made this admission with some embarrassment.

But Levins did not