From below came the echoes of shouts and other sounds which conveyed the intelligence that a large body of men was on the move up to the mine and the mountain slope above. "They're after me," said Rathburn bitterly. "They think I stole the pay-rolls. They can't get me, Sautee--not alive. An' if they get me the other way I'm goin' to see to it somehow that I don't get blamed for these jobs up here. Now, do you begin to see daylight?" Sautee wet his dry lips. The figure on the floor stirred. The shouts from below sounded more distinct. Rathburn's gun leaped into his hand. "You better start hoping the shootin' don't begin till we understand each other, Sautee," he said grimly. "We've come to the show-down!" CHAPTER XXIII QUICK FACTS Disregarding the sounds which continued to come from below, Rathburn stood, gun in hand, regarding Sautee with a grim countenance and a cold look in his keen, gray eyes. "I saw that truck driver held up, Sautee. I was on a ridge below the divide. I saw the tall man in the black slicker, his pardner, an' the boy. I didn't figure it would do any good to tell Mannix I'd taken in the show, an' I was on my way to the desert. I'd be there now if Carlisle hadn't overstepped the mark in that Red Feather place." Sautee pricked up his ears. "You let them arrest you," he said. "Why----" "Because I knew Mannix didn't know who I was an' didn't have anything on me," said Rathburn quickly. "An' I got peevish at Carlisle an' plumb suspicious when he tried to make things look bad for me right there at the start. I began to wise up to the whole lay when you got me out of jail." Sautee's face went white again. "Your fine explanations of why you couldn't get that money up to the mine were thin as water, Sautee. You could get that money up there if you wanted to, an' when you asked me to carry the package to the mine it was a dead out-an'-out give-away. I reckon you didn't play me to have any sense, an' I don't think you gave Carlisle credit for havin' the brains of a jack rabbit, either." Rathburn laughed as the mine manager stared at mention of Carlisle's name again. "Don't worry," he said contemptuously. "I know it was Carlisle who held me up. I take it he figured that you'd actually put money in that package. Wouldn't be surprised if it was him that you got to try that stunt. An' he started away with the package as soon as he got it instead of sneakin' back home to split with you. He double crossed you an' you double crossed him an' me. Now I'm double crossing the two of you." Sautee's look had changed to one of anger. He glared at Rathburn, forgetting his predicament. "You'd have a fine time proving any of this nonsense," he found the courage to say.