Rathburn lifted him to his feet, where he stood unsteadily. Again the gun was in Rathburn's hand. "This party is goin' to leave us," he said to the frightened mine manager. "I'm goin' to step just outside for a minute. It's your chance to make a break, Sautee; but if you try it I'll send a bullet into that cap. Maybe you heard somewhere that I can shoot tolerably well," he concluded in his drawl. Sautee gripped the sides of the boxes piled behind him. Rathburn led the boy outside and said quickly: "Just what is this man Carlisle to you?" A look of fear, remorse, dejection--all commingled and pleading--came into the dark eyes that looked up into his. Rathburn didn't wait for a verbal answer. "Your horse is just up the trail a piece," he said hurriedly. "Get up there--go up behind the powder house, so the men below can't see you. Swing off into the timber to the left and get down out of here. I'll keep their attention. Go home." He waited a moment until he saw that his instructions were being carried out, then he leaped again to the doorway of the powder house. Sautee's face was livid, and his teeth were chattering. Rathburn took a match from his shirt pocket. "Stop!" screamed Sautee. "I'll talk. You were right. It was a frame-up. I'll tell everything--_everything_!" The perspiration was streaming from his face, and his voice shook with terror. "You'll have a chance to talk in less than a minute," said Rathburn calmly. A chorus of shouts came from the trail just below the powder house as a number of men came into view. Rathburn stepped in front of the door with the match in his left hand and his gun in his right. CHAPTER XXIV THE SHOW-DOWN A wild chorus of yells greeted him. He had surmised that the men had seen him coming back down the trail to the powder house with his human burden. Now he called Sautee into view. They would most naturally assume that it was the mine manager he had been carrying. "Come to the door where they can see you," he called to Sautee. The ring in his voice brought Sautee, white-faced and shivering, to the doorway beside Rathburn. Another round of yells followed the mine manager's appearance. Then there was a sudden stillness. Rathburn saw that the crowd was made up mostly of miners. They paused in the wide place in the trail just below the powder house, and Mannix pushed to the fore. "I want you, Coyote," he called sternly. "Now, don't you think I know it?" replied Rathburn in a voice which carried to all the members of the mob. "You don't want me for robbing this mine, Mannix; you want me for something you don't know anything about--because I've got a record. Wait a minute!" He shot out the words as the mob pushed a step forward. "If you fellows take a couple more steps in this direction I'll put a bullet into this box of dynamite!" The movement stopped instantly. Men stared up at him breathlessly, for they realized that he meant what he said.