"A lot, Two-Bits. I sure hope they don't go proddin' into my awful past! There's some terrible things they might find!" He hooked his arm through the other's and laughed at the boy's apprehension. But Beck knew that something of grave consequence impended the instant he set foot in the bunk house for the men, who had been talking lowly, stopped and eyed him in sober silence. Afterward he had a distinct recollection of Two-Bits slipping along the wall, looking at him over his shoulder with the freckles showing in great blotches against his white skin. Hepburn, Riley and Webb sat on one bed. The foreman was leaning back, hands clasping a knee, but he chewed his tobacco with nervous vigor. "The Reverend about to offer prayer?" Tom asked easily. There was no responsive smile on any face. Someone coughed loudly and sharply as if it had been an unnecessary cough. Tom halted. "I'm here. What's up?" he asked quietly. "This is like a funeral ... or a trial." At that Hepburn cleared his throat. "Want to ask you somethin', Beck. I want you to tell these other men what you said to me this noon." Tom hitched up his belt. "If you want 'em to know, why don't you speak the piece yourself? You recall it, don't you?" "Better talk, Tom," Riley advised. "I don't know what this is all about; I don't know what difference what I said to Hepburn can make to the rest of you, but I respect your opinions, Riley, and if he's willing for you to know what I said, I sure am willing to repeat it. "Hepburn and I've had a little argument. It's been goin' on for some time. He'd be pleased to have me move on, I take it, but I sort of like this outfit." "Go on," Hepburn said impatiently. "I told you, Hepburn, and I'll tell you again that this ranch is gettin' a little small to hold both of us. It seems to shrink every day and I don't get good elbow room any more, but so far as I'm concerned I'm more or less permanent." Webb nodded and Riley shifted uneasily, looking from Beck to Hepburn, frankly puzzled. "Yes, that's what you said to me. Now will you tell the boys where you rode this afternoon?" Beck eyed him a long moment and the foreman stared back, assured but not quite composed, his little eyes dark. Once he bit his chew savagely but his expression did not change. "I rode out of here straight up Sunny Gulch, climbed out at the head, rode those little dry gulches as far down as Twenty Mile and came up the far ridge. Then I took a circle to the east and came home by the road." "You admit bein' at the head of Twenty Mile, then?" "Admit it? Yes." "What time?" "Three o'clock or thereabouts,"--after a pause in which he considered. "See any other men?" "Not a man until I got back." Hepburn looked about. Two-Bits muttered lowly to himself. Riley dragged a spur across the floor slowly. Every eye in the room was on Beck, and Beck's eyes were on Hepburn. "Then will you tell the boys how come this?"