was afraid of him----"

"Afraid of him! I'll show you how much I'm----"

"I don't mean that way, Joe! I know you ain't afraid to shoot it out
with him. What I mean is, you're afraid to have him runnin' around
loose--afraid that if he squeals, you'll do time. Now, it would be
pretty clost to murder if you killed a man, no matter how ornery he is,
jest to save your own hide----"

"But it ain't my own hide--it's you!"

"Now you're gittin' down to it. An' it ain't so much me right now, as it
is that poor girl in there. There's two of us here that it's up to you
to protect, an' the way to do it is to stay right here on the ranch till
he comes for her----"

"But that'll be a week! In the meantime Purdy might tip me off."

"No chanct fer that. With Tex on his trail he ain't goin' to have no
time for no tippin' off, an' he wouldn't anyway--not till he'd squeezed
you dry. It's like you said, this is only the beginin'! When he's got
everything he thinks he can git out of you, then he'll tip you off--an'
not before. An' he's liable to show up here any minute--after her. When
Tex begins to crowd him, he's goin' to try to make a git-away, with her.
An' when he comes you make him wade through lead to git to the house!
There's two guns in there, an' we'll keep one loaded while you're
keepin' the other one hot!"

"What if he gits away? If Tex don't git him--an' he don't come back
here?"

"He won't git away, but if he does, you're goin' to throw the saddle on
your cayuse an' ride to Wolf River, an' you're goin' to the bank an' git
your friends together an' tell 'em jest what you told me. Every man
there is your friend an' they'll see you through. They've know'd you fer
six years--an' they'll know the same as I know that there ain't no sense
in throwin' you in jail fer what happened there on the edge of the
desert. You done your time fer that when you was wanderin' through them
mountains. You learnt your lesson then. An' it changed you from a fool
kid that was headed straight to the devil into a square man. That's what
the prisons are for--if they're any good--an' if the mountains done the
job first, why there ain't nothin' left fer the prison to do, is there?"

"Tex Benton's a friend of mine, I'd ought to be out there backin' up his
play."

"You're backin' up his play better by stayin' here an protectin' that
woman. He's trailin' Purdy to save her."

"But, even if we do git Purdy, there's the others--his pals."

Jennie