"Kinder startled him," explained Meshackatee, as Hall stepped inside, but McIvor spoke to the point. "You've been looking for me?" he inquired. "Well, let's come to an understanding--are you still in the employ of the Scarboroughs?" "Hell--no!" burst out Meshackatee with explosive emphasis, "I quit 'em two weeks ago. Their work got too raw for _me_." "Then we can be friends," suggested Hall, holding out his hand and Meshackatee rose up and took it. "You're whistling!" he said, "and I guess mebby you need one--how long since you had a square meal?" "Well, some time," admitted Hall, "but tell me, first of all, have you heard any news from Allifair?" "Ye-es," returned Meshackatee, "she's still with the Scarboroughs. I sent an Injun in last week to look around. He said there was lots of cowboys, and two womenfolks cooking, and the cowboys was rounding up stock. But I heard from other sources that Miz Zoolah has written home and told Allifair's brothers to come out." "What--to get her?" "Or you!" hinted Meshackatee grimly, and Hall nodded his head regretfully. "I was afraid of it," he added. "Cal and Ewing are hard men--we've had several encounters already." "Well, the word I git is that the Scarboroughs are sending everywhere to hire all the gunmen they can. And, since they've killed Sharps and old Henry Bassett, they've come right out into the open. Everybody always knew they had a weakness for stray stock, but now they've joined a gang that works in three states and steals horses from plumb down in Texas. That judge down in Tonto that give the Maverick Basin boys a tip to settle their differences with a Winchester--well, he claims he never said it, but he sure played merry hell, because the wrong outfit is coming out on top. Them ranchers down on the Verde and clean to Geronimo are making an awful howl, and this gang of Texas horse-thieves is driving their stock off by the hundreds and running them up into the Basin. It's a regular hold-out, a horse-thieves' exchange, where Arizona horses are traded into Texas and Texas broncs swopped the other way. I been down in Tonto and the folks is all het up over it--some talk of a Vigilance Committee, and so forth." He paused and as Hall stared moodily into the fire Meshackatee reached over and picked up a coffee-pot. "I'll cook you a little grub," he volunteered briskly, and Hall came back from his dreams. "Of course," went on Meshackatee, having won his attention, "this business don't mean much to _you_. All you want is your girl and----" "Yes, but how am I to get her?" demanded McIvor fiercely. "Well----" began Meshackatee, and then he stopped. "Of course there's always a way." "How do you mean?" inquired Hall, as he failed to elucidate, but Meshackatee only mumbled in his beard. "Drink some coffee," he said; "git some grub under your belt. A man is a mouse when he's starved."