"I don't suppose the' 's any way to go back an' square it, is there?" sez I. "Hell, no!" he sez, bitter as death. "They own Texas." "Haven't you any friends there who would swear it was self-defense?" sez I. "I've got plenty of friends there--that's how I got away; but they don't dare to fight that cattle crowd in the open," sez he. "Looks purty bad," sez I. "It's rotten bad!" sez he. "But this is business all right. Whenever I hear any one talk about the morals of business it drives me wild. The' ain't any morals in business. The best it ever is, is straight gamblin'--I say the BEST it ever is, is straight gamblin'"--Jim's voice was gritty with wrath--"while at the worst," he went on, "it stoops to murder, wholesale and retail, it ruins homes, it manufactures thieves an' perjurers an'--" "You remind me of a feller named Fergoson," sez I. "He said that at the best, business was stealin'." "I like him," sez Jim, or I suppose I better say Dick. "I like him. You couldn't fool him with a lot o' pleasant names for things. He dealt in the spirit of a deed. I like him." It wasn't much peculiar that I hadn't recognized the boy. As he talked, I could see the caged tiger glarin' out through his eyes, an' I knew that something wild would happen if the bars ever broke. "I'm mighty sorry, Dick," sez I. "Oh, I ain't through with 'em yet. I'm not clear out of the game. You don't need to think 'at they've broke me," sez he. "I wasn't thinkin' o' you," I said in a low tone. He drew in his breath, an' the noise he made was half way between a sob an' a groan. "My God!" he said between set teeth. "Do you think that I haven't carried that cross also? But I've changed a lot in five years, an' they won't think of me at the Diamond Dot. Happy, I've got a scheme for organizin' the cattlemen o' the Northwest to fight that Texas crowd an' whip 'em out o' the business. I know the game from A to Z, an' if I can just work it through without comin' out in the open I can beat 'em." "Mebbe," sez I, "but it's exposin' her to a mighty big risk." "I'll never do that, whatever happens," sez he. "As long as this Texas crime hangs over you, it hangs over her too," sez I, "an' as soon as your fight gets under way they'll turn your record inside out, an' you know it."