“I thought you would. We'll get that in writing. And we're going to wait just exactly twenty-four hours before we make a move. It'll take some fine work, but we'll do it. Our boss, here, will fix up the business end with you. He'll go with yuh right now, and stay with yuh till you make good. And the first crooked move you make--” Andy, in unconscious imitation of the Native Son, shrugged a shoulder expressively and urged Weary by a glance to take the leadership. “Irish, you come with me. The rest of you fellows know about what to do. Andy, I guess you'll have to ride point till I get back.” Weary hesitated, looked from Happy Jack to Oleson and the herders, and back to the sober faces of his fellows. “Do what you can for him, boys--and I wish one of you would ride over, after Pink gets back, and--let me know how things stack up, will you?” Incredible as was the situation on the face of it, nevertheless it was extremely matter-of-fact in the handling; which is the way sometimes with incredible situations; as if, since we know instinctively that we cannot rise unprepared to the bigness of its possibilities, we keep our feet planted steadfastly on the ground and refuse to rise at all. And afterward, perhaps, we look back and wonder how it all came about. At the last moment Weary turned back and exchanged guns with Andy Green, because his own was empty and he realized the possible need of one--or at least the need of having the sheep-men perfectly aware that he had one ready for use. The Native Son, without a word of comment, handed his own silver-trimmed weapon over to Irish, and rolled a cigarette deftly with one hand while he watched them ride away. “Does this strike anybody else as being pretty raw?” he inquired calmly, dismounting among them. “I'd do a good deal for the outfit, myself; but letting that man get off--Say, you fellows up this way don't think killing a man amounts to much, do you?” He looked from one to the other with a queer, contemptuous hostility in his eyes. Andy Green took a forward step and laid a hand familiarly on his rigid shoulder. “Quit it, Mig. We would do a lot for the outfit; that's the God's truth. And I played the game right up to the hilt, I admit. But nobody's killed. I told Happy to play dead. By gracious, I caught him just in the nick uh time; he'd been setting up, in another minute.” To prove it, he bent and twitched the handkerchief from the face of Happy Jack, and Happy opened his eyes and made shift to growl. “Yuh purty near-smothered me t'death, darn yuh.” “Dios!” breathed the Native Son, for once since they knew him jolted out of his eternal calm. “God, but I'm glad!” “I guess the rest of us ain't,” insinuated Andy softly, and lifted his hat to wipe the sweat off his forehead. “I will say that--” After all, he did not. Instead, he knelt beside Happy Jack and painstakingly adjusted the crumpled hat a hair's breadth differently.