“Not on yer life, I ain’t. When ye hand that bag over, simply git rid of all yer other vallybles, too; fer I want ’em. How you knowed I’m called Gorilla Jake, I dunno; but it don’t make much difference. I’m him. Knowin’ it, you ought to know that I’ve got an impatient temper.” Tim Benson stood up, smoothed out his facial muscles and threw off the dress he had drawn over his clothing. Then Gorilla Jake saw that he had a man to deal with. When fuller recognition struck him like a blow in the face, he fell back. “Benson!” he howled. “Needn’t yell it. There’s men on my trail; and they’ll be on yours in a minute, if they ain’t already. You know ’em, too--Buffalo Bill and his crowd.” Gorilla Jake looked around, with a startled air. “Was that the crowd that was up by the cañon?” he asked. “You’re speakin’ it.” “Gee-whittaker!” “But you needn’t holler it. They’ll be hoppin’ along here soon enough, without that. What are you doing here?” “What air you? And what was you playin’ woman fer?” Tim Benson stood up, listening for sounds of pursuit. “Let’s hunt a safe hole somewhere; then we can talk things over. It may be a lucky thing for both of us that we’ve met.” “Not fer me--if you’ve got Buffalo Bill’s crowd follerin’ ye!” But the apelike man followed Benson when the latter set out to seek a safer stopping place. It was found by and by, in a hole, after a careful climb across a rocky slope. “There’s a few bushes growing in the crevices here,” said Benson, “and they’ll help to hide us; while this position, away up here, gives us such an outlook that Cody’s crowd can’t come on us easy without us seeing them. So we can talk things over.” Gorilla Jake dropped down inside the hole with Benson. “First,” said Benson, “what brought you here?” “I might answer by sayin’ my feet,” the apelike man answered, spreading his mouth in a horrid grin; “but that wouldn’t be explainin’, would it? So I forks over the information that I was on my way to Blossom Range, and was keepin’ out of the reg’lar trails simply as a matter of habit.” “Any sheriffs chasin’ you?” Gorilla Jake hesitated. “Not this trip.” “The last I heard of you,” said Benson, ignoring the hesitation, “was when it seemed you was going to hang for killing Nat Spargo, over in Valley Falls.” Gorilla Jake drew up his huge shoulders. “I got out o’ that,” he explained, “by makin’ the jury believe that I done the thing in self-defense; but it was a close squeeze.” “What is your lay now?” “Seems to me that I’m doin’ all the explainin’!” the apelike man objected. “But, never mind--I’ll git my whack at you when I’m through. Jest now I was goin’ to Blossom Range, where I thought I might find some o’ my old pals. But the chief reason was the Utes, that’s livin’ jest north of it.” He pulled a package from his pocket. Opening it, he displayed a number of brown tablets.