His voice was low and drawling; he barred the way with quiet steady eyes. The storm-drenched wind blew out his saddle strings, the fringed edges of his gauntlets, the kerchief at his neck, the long tapideros at his feet; it beat back his hat's broad brim, Stargazer's mane snapped loose and level; horse and man framed against coming night and coming storm in poised wild energy, centered, strong and tense. "You darned little meddlesome whiffet!" snarled Jody Weir savagely, as Lull galloped away. See's gun hand lay at his thigh. "Talk all you like, but don't get restless with your hands. I'm telling you! Meddlesome? That's me. Matt is my middle name. Don't let that worry you any. I've got three good reasons for meddling. I know two of you, and I don't know the other one. I don't like waylaying--and I don't like you. Besides, I love to meddle. Always did. Everybody's business is my business. You three birds keep still and look sulky. Be wise, now! Me and a rattlesnake has got the same motto: You touch the button and I'll do the rest." Black above and furnace flame below, the tumbling clouds came rushing from the hills with a mutter of far-off thunder. A glimmer of twilight lingered, and sudden stars blazed across the half sky to eastward, unclouded yet. Hobby Lull cupped his hands and shouted through the dusk: "Hoo-e-ee!" Johnny Dines halted the blue horse and answered blithely: "E-ee-hoo!" "Sorry," said Lull as he rode up, "but I've got to put you under arrest." "Anything serious?" "Yes, it is. A man was killed back there to-day." "So you want my gun, of course. Here it is. Don't mention it. I've had to hold strangers before now, myself." "It isn't quite so vague as that--and I'm sorry, too," said Lull awkwardly. "This man was killed in Redgate Cañon and you came through there. I met you myself." "Not that big red-headed chap I saw there?" "That's the man." "Hell, that's too bad. Acted like a good chap. He chinned with me a while--caught up with me and gave me a letter to mail. Where do we go--on or back? If you take me to the John Cross wagon to-morrow they'll tell you I'm all right. Down on the river nobody seemed to know where the wagon was. I'm Johnny Dines, Phillipsburg way. T-Tumble-T brand." "I've heard of you--no bad report either. You live on one county line and I'm on the other. Well, here's hoping you get safe out of the mess. It isn't pretty. We'll take you on to Hillsboro, I guess, now we're this close. There's a lot more of us behind, waiting. Let's go back and get them. Then we'll go on." "Look now--if you're going on to Hillsboro, my horse has come a right smart step to-day, and every little bit helps. Why don't you shoot a few lines? They'll come a-snuffin' then, and we won't have to go back." Hobby nodded. He fired two shots. "You ride a Bar Cross horse, I see."