and rolled a cigarette.
'Howdy, Jim,' the outlaw greeted. 'Navajo said yu wanted to see me.'
'Well, I wasn't goin' to let him fancy he fetched me in,' Sudden explained.
Rogue nodded in comprehension. 'Allasame, yu've lost out, Jim, an! I've won,' he stated.
Sudden's eyebrows went up. 'That so?' he queried. 'The game ain't finished yet.'
'Talk sense, boy,' Rogue retorted. 'Sam Eden thinks the world an' all o' that girl ; I can make my own terms. She's the winnin' card an' I hold it.'
'But yu won't play it,' Sudden said quietly.
The elder man glowered at him. 'Th' hell I won't? Who'll stop me?'
'yu will,' came the cool response. 'Listen to me, Rogue. yo're one tough hombre--I never met a tougher--but at bottom yo're a white man an' yu can't forget that once yu had women-folk yu thought a lot of, an' that there was a time when yu'd 'a' shot a man just for speakin' disrespectful of a girl like Miss Eden. She's in yore han's by accident ; yu can't use her to rob her father, an' yu know it.'
For a moment he thought the man he had spoken to so boldly was about to spring upon him. The cold eyes had grown hot and the big fists were bunched into knots. But the outlaw held himself in, only his voice betraying the tearing passion which possessed him.
'What's past is past an' no damn business o' yores,' he said thickly. 'Why should I care how she comes to be here? To Sam Eden I'm a road-agent an' cattle-thief an' if I fell into his han's, even by accident'--with a heavy sneer--'he'd stretch my neck. All right, I ain't blamin' him, but this time it happens to be my turn. I'd be loco to pass up such a chance as this, an' what d'yu s'pose my men would say, huh?'
Under his hat-brim, the younger man's eyes gleamed slyly. 'Hadn't thought o' that,' he admitted. 'yeah, I reckon yu'd find it middlin' hard to persuade 'em.'
He saw the other's jaw tighten and his own face remained wooden under the sharp scrutiny it received. Rogue pondered heavily for a while, his brows knitted, and then stood up, motioning the cowboy to follow. The card-game had ceased and the men were gathered in a group listening to the half-breed. They opened out when their leader approached.
'Well, Navajo, yu got it figured out to yore satisfaction?' Rogue asked.
The man shrugged his shoulders. 'Don't need any figurin',' he replied. 'Eden hands over the herd an' gits his gal back ; that's all there is to it.'
The outlaw leader folded his arms, his eyes flinty.
'The girl goes back to her father, now, an' without conditions,' he said deliberately. 'I don't war with women.' The decision stunned them to silence for a moment and then babel broke out. Above the protesting voices that of Navajo made itself heard :
'See here, Rogue, we all got a say in this,' he cried. 'yu ain't the on'y one.'
'I've said it,' the outlaw told him. 'As long as I'm boss o' this band I run things my own way.' His baleful, bloodshot eyes travelled to the half-breed. 'Navajo, yu got ambitions to fill my shoes. Step out an' pull yore gun ; we'll settle it here an' now.'
The other men watched the half-breed curiously. Any one of them might have shot down the challenger but it would have meant a battle, for not all of them were disloyal to Rogue. Also, there was that lean-limbed cowboy, of whose abilityto use his gun there was no doubt. Navajo was not the stuff to stand an acid test.
'yu got me all wrong, Rogue,' he protested. 'I ain't makin' trouble, an' I reckon the boys don't want none neither. Gittin' the herd is all that matters. It seemed an easy way, but if yu got itfixed different, we ain't carin'.'
Having gained his end, Rogue was too astute to overplay his hand. He knew the men, understood that self- interest was the only factor which governed their crude natures. Once satisfied that they would not lose, they would be tractable enough.
'I want them cattle as bad as yu do--got to have 'em, in fact,' he said quickly. 'So yu needn't to worry 'bout that.'
Boldly turning his back on them, he walked to the tree-trunk. Sudden stepped after him. The tempest of emotion which had raged through him seemed to have weakened the outlaw physically ; he looked tired and his face was drawn.
'Rogue, yu acted like a white man an' I'm rememberin' it,' Sudden told him.
'I acted like a damn fool an' I'm forgettin' it,' came the sardonic reply. He was silent awhile, pondering. 'How in hell am Ito get that gal back to her of man? It's most of ten mile. Can't use any o' the boys, an' I dursn't leave 'em just now.'
'Send Sandy, an' yu can have my word, an' his, that he'll come back--alone,' Sudden suggested. 'yu can tell him that my life depends on his doin' that, though there's no need.'
'yu trust him that much?' the outlaw asked, almost a wistful note in his voice, and when Sudden nodded, 'Well, it 'pears to be the on'y trail out.'
He walked over to where the girl and her companion were waiting, anxiously. Carol, born of fighting stock, faced the famous desperado fearlessly. With scarcely a glance at her, Rogue said roughly:
'I don't want yu here. This fella'--he gestured to Sandy --'will take yu back to yore camp ; it ain't so far.'
'Thank you,' the girl said. 'I am sure my father'
'Don't get any fool notions,' he interrupted harshly. 'Tell Eden I can win without usin' women.' He beckoned Sandy aside. 'The herd lies due west--yu can't miss it. Now, I want yore word that'yu'll come back--alone. If yu don't show up, or bring company, it will go hard with Jim. yu sabe?'
'I'll be back--if the war-whoops don't get me,' the young man promised. 'An' Rogue, I wanta say thisa mighty han'some act'
'Aw, go to hell,' the outlaw retorted. 'She interferes, an' that's all there is to it. Get agoin'.'
Furtive glances followed the pair as they rode away, but there was no protest, and the inevitable ribald remarks were uttered in undertones. Sudden had waved a cheerful paw but purposely did not go near them ; he had no desire to invent explanations. When they had gone, Rogue came to him.
'What about them guns o' yores, Jim?'
'I've pledged myself to stay here till Sandy returns. Don't yu reckon it would be wiser to let me wear 'em till then?' The other considered the proposition ; in the event of more trouble with the men, the prisoner would necessarily be on his side.
'Mebbe yo're right,' he decided.
Meanwhile the girl and her escort were slowly making their way in the direction they believed the S E camp to lie, slowly because, there being no trail, they had to pick a path for themselves in the wilderness.
Despite the necessity for constant caution, Sandy stole an occasional glance at the girl riding beside him. She had courage, and if the slim, straight figure now drooped slightly in the saddle, it was only to be expected after the nerve-wracking ordeal of the last forty-eight hours. Her first words, after they had ridden a mile in silence, took him by surprise:
'Some of those men seemed to know you.'
'We'd met 'em,' Sandy admitted. 'yu run up against all sorts when yo're driftin round.'
She did not speak for some moments, and then, 'Why did that man let me go? He could have made his own terms with my father.'
'It's got me guessin',' the boy told her, truthfully enough. 'Mebbe Jim struck some sort o' bargain, seein' he stayed behind.'
Carol shook her head. 'He could have kept all of us,' she pointed out. 'He was disputing with his men when the shooting occurred. Was anyone hurt?'
'I expect so,' Sandy replied. 'That's a tough team an' it takes a hard man to handle 'em. Rogue's all o' that.'
'Somehow I wasn't afraid of him,' Carol said reflectively. 'Though I believe he had just killed or maimed a fellow-creature.'
Chapter XVIII
IN the S E Camp, anxiety at the absence of their young mistress deepened when neither Sandy nor Sudden
