"Help yerself," Grimshaw grinned, "an' just to show you there's no hard feelin's, I'll let the tail go with the hide--there's three others you c'n have along with him." "What do you mean?" "I mean if you don't get him before supper, I'll have to. The four of 'em's got tired of the horse game. Banks an' railroad trains looks better to them. I'm too slow fer 'em. They're tired of me, an' tonight they aim to kill me an' Bill Harlow--which they're welcome to if they can git away with it." An answering grin twisted the lips of the Texan: "Keep pretty well posted--don't you, Cass?" "Where'd I be now, if I didn't? But about this woman business--I told Purdy to let the women alone--but you can't tell that bird nothin'. He knows it all--an' then some. Is she your woman, an' how come Purdy to have her?" "No, she ain't mine--she's the wife of the pilgrim--the one we didn't lynch, that night----" Grimshaw shook his head: "Bad business, Tex--mixin' up with other men's wives. Leads to trouble every time--there's enough single ones--an' even then----" Tex interrupted him: "It ain't that kind of a mixup. This is on the level. She an' I was on Long Bill's ferry, an' the drift piled up against us so bad I had to cut the cable. We drifted ashore this side of Red Sand, an' while I was gone to get some horses, Purdy come along an' made off with her. I followed an' lost Purdy's trail here in the bad lands--I was half crazy yesterday, thinkin' of her bein' in Purdy's clutches--but, today, it ain't so bad. If I find her quick there's a chance she's safe." He paused and drew from his pocket the folded hand-bill. "The pilgrim offered a reward, an' Purdy aims to get it." The other glanced at the bill: "I seen one," he said, gruffly. For a moment he puffed rapidly upon his cigarette, threw away the butt, and looked the Texan squarely in the eye: "There's a couple of things about that bill I've wanted to know. You've told me about the woman part. But the rest of it? What in hell you be'n doin' to have a reward up fer you? You spoke a mouthful when you said we'd be'n friends--we're friends yet. It's a friend that's talkin' to you now--an' one that knows what he's talkin' about. You're a damn fool! A young buck like you, which if you'd stay straight could be foreman of any outfit on the range--an' mebbe git one of his own started after while--goin' an' gittin' hisself outlawed! Fer God's sake, man--you don't know what you've gone up against--but--me--I know! How bad be you in?" The Texan started to speak, but the other interrupted. "If it ain't bad--if a matter of a thousan' or so will square it--you go an' fix it up. I've got the money--an' it ain't doin' me no good--nor no one else, cached out in an old iron kettle. You take it an' git straight--an' then you stay straight!"