Pink looked at him suspiciously in the darkness, and put a piece of the road between them. "I fell asleep on a ledge of r-rock, and when I woke up I heard voices just under me." "The hell ye did!" "It was you and Bud." "Well, what ye goin' to do about hit? Hit ain' befittin' you to squeal on us." Von Rittenheim turned hot in the darkness, and made an impulsive motion that induced a corresponding disturbance in his companion. "If I had thought of doing that I should not have spoken to you to-night." Pressley nodded, and came across the intervening space. "You-all wan' to come into the game, eh?" "No, I do not want to join you, if that is what you mean." "Well, what do ye want, anyway?" "I wees' to say a few things to you. I do not ask you to stop moonshining. You are old enough to decide for yourself what kind of life you pr-refer to lead, though you know well that the life of a law-br-reaker is not the r-right sort." "Oh, quit preachin', Mr. Baron. You-all's a law-breaker, yo'self." Friedrich clutched the reins with a jerk that made the mule give a disgusted snort. The justice of the retort compelled him to self-control, as well as the knowledge that a giving way to rage would accomplish nothing, whereas coolness might do something. "You know as well as I do the penalty of br-reaking the law. You've suffered it more than once, they tell me." "Ah reckon Ah've cost 'em right smart mo'n they ever got out o' me," chuckled Pink. "So I do not ask you to face the r-results of what you do, because you know well what they are, and you have made your choice. But I do ask you to think carefully before you undertake the r-responsibility of making Bud a criminal." Pink's eyes shone cruelly in the darkness, but he only said, "Seems like you-all been a long time startin' on this yere work o' reform. You said hit was six weeks ago you heard us a-talkin'." "Perhaps I have been wrong to delay. But that morning Bud seemed not sure and determined about joining you, and I hoped that he might make up his mind to refr-rain." "How do you know he ain'?" "Oh, by the grape-vine telegraph. Those things always are known. Also have I heard the men at the party to-night talking about it." "Bud ain' no boy. Don' you think he's old enough to decide fo' himself fo' or ag'in' the life of a law-breaker, as you call hit." "No, I do not. Bud is several years younger than you in r-real age, and he is a child beside you in deter-rmination. Also, he admires you." "Ah'm grateful for the compliment!" "You could do anything with him." "Ah'm doin' what Ah wan' to with him." Von Rittenheim looked at his opponent in disgust, and fell back upon his last argument. "You know well what are the chances of your getting caught. You've been caught before." "Yes, but Ah won' be this time. Hit was fellers that was mad with me who told on me befo', 'n Ah've fixed hit this time so Ah ain' got no enemies. They's only one feller that might inform." "Who's that?" "You."