the gold of that hair."
"God!"
The word was hardly more than a whisper, but it brought Black Bart leaping to his feet.
Dan spoke again: "Tex, I'm thankin' you for listenin' to me; I wanted to talk. Bein' silent was burnin' me up. There's one thing more."
"Fire it out, lad."
"This evenin' I told you I hated no man but Jim Silent."
"Yes."
"An' now they's another of his gang. Sometime—when she's standin' by—I'm goin' to take him by the throat till he don't breathe no more. Then I'll throw him down in front of her an' ask her if she c'n kiss the life back into his lips!"
Calder was actually shaking with excitement, but he was wise enough not to speak.
"Tex!"
"Ay, lad."
"But when I've choked his damned life away—"
"Yes?"
"Ay, lad."
"There'll be five more that seen her shamin' me. Tex—all hell is bustin' loose inside me!"
For a moment Calder watched, but that stare of cold hate mastered him. He turned his head.
15. THE CROSSROADS
As Black Bart raced away in answer to Dan's whistle, Kate recovered herself from the daze in which she stood and with a sob ran towards the willows, calling the name of Dan, but Silent sprang after her, and caught her by the arm. She cried out and struggled vainly in his grip.
"Don't follow him, boys!" called Silent. "He's a dog that can bite while he runs. Stand quiet, girl!"
Lee Haines caught him by the shoulder and jerked Silent around. His hand held the butt of his revolver, and his whole arm trembled with eagerness for the draw.
"Take your hand from her, Jim!" he said.
Silent met his eye with the same glare and while his left hand still held Kate by both her wrists his right dropped to his gun.
"Not when you tell me, Lee!"
"Damn you, I say let her go!"
"By God, Haines, I stand for too much from you!"
And still they did not draw, because each of them knew that if the crisis came it would mean death to them both. Bill Kilduff jumped between them and thrust them back.
He cried, "Ain't we got enough trouble without roundin' up work at home? Terry Jordan is shot through the arm."
Kate tugged at the restraining hand of Silent, not in an attempt to escape, but in order to get closer to Haines.
"Was this your friendship?" she said, her voice shaking with hate and sorrow, "to bring me here as a lure for Whistling Dan? Listen to me, all of you! He's escaped you now, and he'll come again. Remember him, for he shan't forget you!"
"You hear her?" said Silent to Haines.
"Is this what you want me to turn loose?"
"Silent," said Haines, "it isn't the girl alone you've double crossed. You've crooked me, and you'll pay me for it sooner or later!"
"Day or night, winter or summer, I'm willing to meet you an' fight it out. Rhinehart and Purvis, take this girl back to the clearing!"
They approached, Purvis still staring at the hand from which only a moment before his gun had been knocked by the shot of Whistling Dan. It was a thing which he could not understand—he had not yet lost a most uncomfortable sense of awe. Haines made no objection when they went off, with Kate walking between them. He knew, now that his blind anger had left him, that it was folly to draw on a fight while the rest of Silent's men stood around them.
"An' the rest of you go back to the clearin'. I got somethin' to talk over with Lee," said Silent.
The others obeyed without question, and the leader turned back to his lieutenant. For a moment longer they remained staring at each other. Then Silent moved slowly forward with outstretched hand.
"Lee," he said quietly, "I'm owin' you an apology an' I'm man enough to make it."
"I can't take your hand, Jim."
Silent hesitated.
"I guess you got cause to be mad, Lee," he said. "Maybe I played too quick a hand. I didn't think about double crossin' you. I only seen a way to get Whistlin' Dan out of our path, an' I took it without rememberin' that you was the safeguard to the girl."
Haines eyed his chief narrowly.
"I wish to God I could read your mind," he said at last, "but I'll take your word that you did it without thinking."
His hand slowly met Silent's.
"An' what about the girl now, Lee?"
"I'll send her back to her father's ranch. It will be easy to put her on the right way."
"Don't you see no reason why you can't do that?"
"Are you playing with me?"
"I'm talkin' to you as I'd talk to myself. If she's loose she'll describe us all an' set the whole range on our trail."
Haines stared.
Silent went on: "If we can't turn her loose, they's only one thing left —an' that's to take her with us wherever we go."
"On your honour, do you see no other way out?"
"Do you?"
"She may promise not to speak of it."
"There ain't no way of changin' the spots of a leopard, Lee, an' there ain't no way of keepin' a woman's tongue still."
"How can we take a girl with us."
"It ain't goin' to be for long. After we pull the job that comes on the eighteenth, we'll blow farther south an' then we'll let her go."
"And no harm will come to her while she's with us?"
"Here's my hand on it, Lee."
"How can she ride with us?"
"She won't go as a woman. I've thought of that. I brought out a new outfit for Purvis from Elkhead—trousers, chaps, shirts, an' all. He's small. They'll near fit the girl."
"There isn't any other way, Jim?"
"I leave it to you. God knows I don't want to drag any damn calico aroun' with us."
As
