l:href='#_3.jpg'/>which had been added to make the new brand 
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Hunter said abruptly, 'I think you boys had better get into that sport car of mine and light out of here before these fellows find you.'
'That's in perfect agreement with our wishes,' Arnold replied.
'You know too much for your own safety. They dare not rest now until they have stopped you from talking.'
'If you will take care of Exhibit A, we'll leave it with you,' Hal said, indicating the strip of hide. 'It will be safer in a deposit box in your bank vault than with us.'
'I'll take care of it,' Hunter promised. 'Now get going as soon as I have given you the car keys — and don't stop until you have plenty of friends around you.'
'Yes, sir,' Hal promised meekly.
'No more damn foolishness. You have your evidence now, and it isn't worth a nickel if you let these scoundrels shoot you down.'
Hunter watched them drive away. He liked this cool young ranchman who had the gift of taking danger in his stride, and with it the aplomb to shrug off the experience as all in the day's work.
As he was walking along the upstairs hall to his bedroom, a girl of about nineteen poked her head out of a door he was passing. 'For Pete's sake, who were they and what did they want in the middle of the night?' she demanded.
'Go to bed, young woman,' her father told her. 'Their business was very private.'
'Is that so?' she retorted saucily and somewhat sleepily. 'And it's none of my business, of course, even though I saw them driving away in my car.'
'If you'll look up the records at the courthouse you'll find it isn't your car,' he said, and continued to his room.
'It's practically mine,' she flung after him. 'And I can tell you one thing. They won't get far. The tank registered empty last night, and I didn't have my coupons with me.'
Hunter was just closing his door, but he jerked it open fast. 'What's that — no gas in the car?'
'Not a pint. But of course they can get it filled — if they happen to notice. I hope they stall two miles from a filling station. Serve them right for having the nerve to wake us up at this hour.' She yawned, stretched, gave him a mocking 'Good night, darling,' and went back to bed. Her tousled head had scarcely hit the pillow before she was again asleep.
But the information she had tossed off so airily interfered effectually with any more sleep for her father. Instead of having helped young Stevens and his friend, he had increased their danger by giving them a car they could not use. Even if they discovered at once that the tank was empty, they could not get it filled at this time of day.
THE NEWS CARRIED by the two night guards to their companions brought them out of their beds and into a huddle. This was disturbing information. Their foes had outwitted them and obtained evidence the rustlers had trucked fifty miles to put in their possession.
'So you handed over yore guns like a pair of lambs and let them skin the brand off one of the critters,' jeered Fenwick.
'That's right,' agreed Nuney. 'We sat there with a six-shooter at our heads and liked it.' He added gently, 'The way you did when Stevens took you to the calaboose.'
Fenwick glared at him. 'Don't get funny with me, fellow,' he warned, the words coming from between set teeth.
'Now, boys,' interrupted Cash Polk, 'let's not fuss about what can't be helped.' He picked up a rifle from the corner and gave it to Nuney. 'You may be needing this.'
'No two-bit cowpuncher can ride me and get away with it,' Fenwick growled.
'Bill wouldn't try it,' Cash said. 'Let's get down to brass tacks. First off, these fellows can't get out of town because Chad ripped the wires loose under the hood of their car. But they will come back to sneak the car away, and we had better be there to see they don't.'
'Chad is down there watching. He'll let us know if they come.' A little man usually called Doc made the suggestion.
'Two more of you boys had better go help Chad.' Polk looked around and selected Nuney and Doc. 'Make sure if they come they stay,' he concluded softly, his beady black eyes shuttling from one to the other.
'Just what do you mean by that?' Nuney asked.
'He means to fill them full of lead — before they take yore gun away from you again,' sneered Brick.
'Nothing doing,' answered Nuney bluntly, his steady gaze on Fenwick. 'I'm no killer. In a fair fight I'll take my chance, but—'
Brick interrupted with a bitter curse. 'Can't you get it through yore thick head, you numskull, that they're fixing to put us all in the pen? We've got to blot them out — and quick.'
Nuney shook his head obstinately. 'Count me out. I won't do it.'
'It's got to be that way, Bill,' Cash said, in a voice that was almost pleading. 'I don't like it any more than you do. But we've got to stick together. These fellows butted in and asked for it. What else can we do?' He answered his own question. 'Not a thing. It's neck meat or nothing. Either these two fellows go, or the whole caboodle of us get sent up for long terms.'
A big bull-necked fellow with buck teeth rose from the bed on which he was sitting. 'Hell, we got no time to chew the fat. I'm not so choosy. I'll go with Doc' He pulled up halfway across the room, stung by suspicion. 'Why don't we all go? Do you fellows aim to sit here on yore fannies while we do the dirty work?'
'We've got to guard both roads out of town, and we have no time to lose, like Buck says.' The eyes of Polk took a quick census. There were seven of them in the room — Mullins, Fenwick, Buck, Nuney, Doc, Carlos Vallejo, and himself. The truck drivers had headed for home to have their vehicles out of the danger zone before morning. Chad made the eighth. Cash appointed Brick and Mullins to hold the road at the north end of town, while he and Nuney took the south exit. Vallejo, Buck, Doc, and Chad would cover the district in the heart of town near Stevens's car.
'You picked yoreself a soft spot, Cash,' taunted Fenwick. 'Those fellows won't try to go south, and you know it. But what's the use of gassing? Let's go get 'em.' He stopped in front of Nuney. 'I'll see you later, Mr. Quitter. There can't anybody throw me down and get away with it.'
'I'll be waiting at the gate, Brick,' promised Nuney. 'Just tell me where and when,'
They scattered in front of their hotel to cover the assignments allotted them. Carlos walked beside Nuney, of whom he was very fond. Jim had once saved him from a beating at the hands of a big drunken teamster.
'Are you going through with this, Jim?' the Mexican asked in a low voice.
'I don't know.' Nuney was troubled. This was what came of taking the first wrong step. He had not expected to be called on to do murder. Yet how could he escape it without throwing down his companions? 'I wish to God I had never let myself into a jam like this.'
'Maybe it will work out okey,' Carlos said. 'Some of the others may see them first.'
Nuney shook his head. 'We're all in it, no matter who fires the shots. Unless—'
'Vamonos,' murmured Carlos. 'Muy pronto.'
Their eyes met. 'When we reach the alley,' Nuney said.
The man Chad came forward to meet them from the alley entrance where he had been lurking. 'What's cooking?' he asked.
Polk explained to him what had occurred at the Gibson pens and the decision to which they had come. Chad was a bulky man with a brutal face in which small pale eyes were set too close. Jim Nuney thought that it would not disturb him to do murder if it served his interest.
'If they came back to town from the packing plant, they must still be here,' Chad said. 'And if they are, we finish this business tonight. Me, I do not like prison. I was in one two years. That is enough. Let us stop the clock of these meddlesome fools.'
