The Captain took them away,
you know; but he won't object to giving them back now!" His voice was
bitter.

"The rest of them might. You seem to think that when you killed
Perkins you wiped out the whole delegation--which you didn't. What was
the row about; if you don't mind telling me?"

"I thought you knew," said Jack quite sincerely, which proved more
than anything how absorbed he was in his own part in the affair. He
shifted his head upon his clasped hands so that his eyes might rest
upon the waning firelight, where the pot of frijoles, set back from
supper, was still steaming languidly in the hot ashes.

"You started it yourself, two weeks ago," he announced whimsically,
to lighten a little the somber tale. "If you hadn't bought that white
horse from that drunken Spaniard, I'd be holding a handful of aces
and kings to-night, most likely, in Bill Wilson's place. And my legs
wouldn't be aching like the devil," he added, reminded anew of his
troubles, when he shifted his position. "It's all your fault, bought
the horse."

Dade grinned and bent to hold a twig in the coals, that he might
light a cigarette. "All right, I'm the guilty party. Let's have the
consequences of my evil deed," he advised, settling back on his heels
and lowering an eyelid at Manuel in behalf of this humorous partner of
his.

"You bought the horse and broke the Spaniard's heart and ruined his
temper. And he and Sandy had a fight, and--So," he went on, after
a two-minute break in the argument, "when I heard Swift sneering
something about Sandy, last night, I rose up in meeting and told
him and some others what I thought of 'em. I was not," he explained,
"thinking nice thoughts at the time. You see, Perkins, since he got
the lead, has gathered a mighty scaly bunch around him, and they've
been running things to suit themselves.

"Then, Swift and two or three others held up a boy from the mines
to-day, and I happened to see it. I interfered; fact is, I killed
a couple of them. So they arrested both of us, went through a farce
trial, and were trying to hurry me into Kingdom Come before Bill
Wilson got a rescue party together, when you come along. That's all.
They let the kid go--which was a good thing. I don't think they'll be
down here after me. In fact, I've been thinking maybe I'd go back, in
a day or so, and have it out with them."

"Yes, that's about what you'd be thinking, all right," retorted Dade
unemotionally. "Sounds perfectly natura