"No, he doesn't," assented Hall, and rode on in brooding silence, for he was still in the hands of his enemies. "And yet," went on Meshackatee, "it ain't what they do so much as the way they do it. You can take a man's gun without jabbing him in the belly and threatening to leave him for the buzzards; and if you'd give 'em a few drinks and kinder jolly 'em along the chances are that most of 'em would join. But that's the Scarboroughs--overbearing as hell, and nobody but a Teehanno will stand for 'em. Jest the minute they see your rigging they was dead set agin ye, because a Texican won't admit that a single-cinch saddle can be rode by a scholar and a gentleman. It's all double-rig with them, and tie to the horn; and any man that comes by with a dallywelta outfit is due to get a hazing. But I'm broadminded myself and I sure throwed the hooks into 'em when I was telling about One-eyed Tex. I was looking for Red to come through that stone door when I made that last crack about Texicans, and I still maintain that you can't hurt a Teehanno by hitting him on the 'haid.' I've heard 'em admit it themselves. And what I was telling you about them being from Uvalde is true as gospel script. They're the prize cow-thieves in the world, bar none." "Then how can you reconcile the matter with your conscience, if you accept money which has been gotten by stealing cows?" Meshackatee grinned and scratched his shaggy beard; after a sudden, searching glance at his prisoner. "Well, in the first place," he said, "my conscience ain't the kind that worries much over trifles; and in the second place this money never come from stealing cows--it's all in brand-new bills." "New bills!" repeated Hall, and then, after silence, "well, where do they get these bills?" "Search me," shrugged Meshackatee, still watching him narrowly, "_is that what you come to find out_?" "Why--why no!" exclaimed Hall. "Why certainly not. What gave you such a curious idea?" "Ain't you an officer?" challenged Meshackatee. "I won't hold it agin ye--might even be an officer myself! No? Honest? Gimme your word of honor? Well, somehow I can't hardly believe it. I go by hunches, see; and the first time I saw you I says: 'There goes an officer!' But if you ain't, you ain't--and I know it's danged unhealthy for an officer that's caught in these parts--but it's the common report that this money of the Scarboroughs' was taken from a Government paymaster." "I see!" nodded Hall, and his eyes flashed sudden fire though his face remained fixed like a mask. "Yes," went on Meshackatee after waiting for him to speak, "and the Government never forgets. Somebody robbed the ambulance and shot two or three soldiers, right up on the Camp Verde road; and you're the kind of man, if I was picking 'em out, that I'd send in to look the matter up."