He backed toward it and stood with one shoulder against the lintel. "Come right in. I ain't got to housekeepin' yet, but . . ." He ceased speaking as he saw Corliss's gaze fixed on the kyacks. "Where did you get 'em?" queried the rancher. The men crowded in and gazed curiously at the kyacks--then at Sundown. Shoop strode forward. "The game's up, Sun. We want the Mexican." "This is me ranch," said Sundown. "I got the papers--here. You fellas is sure welcome--only they ain't goin' to be no shootin' or such-like. I ain't joshin' this time." A voice broke the succeeding silence. "If the Mexican is in there, we want him--that's all." Sundown's eyes became bright with a peculiar expression. Slowly--yet before any one could realize his intent--he reached down and drew the Mexican's gun. "You're me friends," he said quietly. "He's in there--dyin'. I reckon Sinker got him. He drug himself here last night and I took him in. This is me home--and if you fellas is _men_, you'll let him die easy and quiet." "I'm from Missouri," said Shoop, with a hard laugh. "You got to show me that he's--like you say, or--" Sundown leveled his gun at Shoop. "I ain't lyin' to you, Bud. Sinker was me friend. And I ain't lyin' when I says that the fust fella that tries to tech him crosses over afore he does." Some one laughed. Corliss touched Shoop's arm and whispered to him. With a curse the foreman turned and the men clumped out to the yard. "He's right," said Corliss. "We'll wait." They stood around talking and commenting upon Sundown's defense of the Mexican. "'Course we could 'a' got him," said Shoop, "but it don't set right with me to be stood up by a tenderfoot. Sundown's sure loco." "I don't know, Bud. He's queer, all right, but this is his ranch. He's got a right to order us out." Shoop was about to retort when Sundown came to the doorway. "I guess you can come in now," he said. "And you won't need no gun." The men shuffled awkwardly, and finally led by Corliss they filed into the room and one by one they stepped to the open door of the bedroom and gazed within. Then they filed out silently. "I'll send over some grub," said Corliss as they mounted. Sundown nodded. The band of riders moved slowly back toward the Concho. About halfway on their homeward journey they met Loring in a buckboard. The old sheep-man drove up and would have passed them without speaking had not Corliss reined across the road and halted him. "One of your herders--'Sandro--is over at the water-hole," said Corliss. "If you're headed for Antelope, you might stop by and take him along."