"I'll admit that I've been sort of clamoring for you to let me bring a
big posse over here and round up McFann in a hurry. Well, I don't
believe that scheme would work."

"I'm glad we agree on that point."

"You've been taking the ground that unless we brought a lot of men over,
we couldn't do any better than the Injun police in the matter of
catching this half-breed. Also you've said that if we _did_ bring a
small army of cattlemen, it would only be a lynching party, and Jim
McFann'd never live to reach the jail at White Lodge."

"I don't think anything could stop a lynching."

"Well, I believe you're right. The boys have been riding me, stronger
and stronger, to get up a posse and come over here. In fact, they got so
strong that I suspected they had something up their sleeves. When I sort
o' backed up on the proposition, a lot of them began pulling wires at
Washington, so's to make you get orders that'd let us come on the
reservation and get both of these men."

"I know it," said Lowell, "but they've found they can't make any
headway, even with their own Congressmen, because Judge Garford's stand
is too well known. He's let everybody know that he's against anything
that may bring about a lynching. So far as the Department is concerned,
I've put matters squarely up to it and have been advised to use my own
judgment."

"Well, I never seen people so wrought up, and I'm free to admit now that
if Jim McFann hadn't broke jail he'd have been lynched on the very day
that he made his getaway. The only question is--do you think you can get
him before the trial, and are you sure the Injun'll come in?"

"I'm not sure of anything, of course," replied Lowell, "but I've staked
everything on Fire Bear making good his word. If he doesn't, I'm ready
to quit the country. McFann's a different proposition. He has been too
clever for the police, but I have rather hesitated about having Plenty
Buffalo risk the lives of his men, because I have had a feeling that
McFann might be reached in a different way. I'm sure he's been getting
supplies from the man who has been using him in bootlegging operations."

"You mean Talpers?"

"Yes. If McFann is mixed up in anything, from bootlegging to bigger
crimes, he is only a tool. He can be a dangerous tool--that's
admitted--but I'd like to gather in the fellow who does the planning."

"By golly! I wish I had you working with me on this murder case," said
Redmond, in a burst of confidence.