"Drug him!" he said grimly, his lips in two straight lines. "It's likely they roped him!" He remounted his pony and sat in the saddle, watching Hazelton as the latter continued his examination. "They're a fine, nervy bunch!" he sneered as Hazelton also climbed into his saddle. "They must have piled onto him like a pack of wolves. If they'd have come one at a time he'd have cleaned them up proper!" They rode away down the trail toward the cabin. Norton went in and looked again at Hollis, and then, telling Hazelton that he would return in the afternoon, he departed for the Circle Bar. He stopped at the ranchhouse and communicated the news to his wife and Potter and then rode on up the river to a point about ten miles from the ranchhouse--where the outfit was working. The men received his news with expressions of rage and vengeance. They had come to admire Hollis for his courage in electing to continue the fight against Dunlavey; they had seen that in spite of his ignorance of the customs of their world he possessed a goodly store of common sense and an indomitable spirit. Yet none of them expressed sympathy, though their faces showed that they felt it. Expressions of sympathy in a case such as this would have been unnecessary and futile. But their expressions of rage showed how the news had affected them. Though they knew that Dunlavey's forces outnumbered their own they were for striking back immediately. But Norton discouraged this. "We're layin' low for a while," he said. "Mebbe the boss will get well. If he does he'll make things mighty interestin' for Dunlavey--likely he'll remember who was in the crowd which beat him up. If he dies----" His eyes flashed savagely. "Well, if he dies you boys can go as far as you like an' I'll go with you without doin' any kickin'." "What's goin' to be done with that noospaper of his'n?" inquired Ace. "You reckon she'll miss fire till he's well again?" Norton's brows wrinkled; he had not thought of the newspaper. But he realized now that if the paper failed to appear on scheduled time the people in Union County would think that Hollis had surrendered; they would refuse to believe that he had been so badly injured that he could not issue the paper, and Dunlavey would be careful to circulate some sort of a story to encourage this view. Now that Ace had brought the matter to his attention he began to suspect that this had been the reason of the attack on Hollis. That they had not killed him when they had the opportunity, showed that they must have had some purpose other than that of merely desiring to get him out of the way. That they had merely beaten him showed that their wish was only to incapacitate him temporarily. Norton's eyes flashed with a sudden determination. "I don't reckon that the _Kicker_ will miss fire," he declared; "not if I have to go to Dry Bottom an' get her out myself!" Ace eyed him furtively and now spoke with an embarrassed self-consciousness.