"That's about the tenth reformation that's transpired under my eyes in as many days," Brill mused. "Give us time and this community will turn pure and spotless. I don't mind any man's owing me if he stands a fair show to go on living." The sheriff dropped in for one of his infrequent visits to Brill's. He waved all hands to a drink. "I've just been out to the Three Bar to see Harris," he announced. "And asked him about this news that's been floating about. He came right out flat and says he's not offering a reward. That's all a mistake." Every man in the room grinned at this statement. There was no other possible reply that Harris could make. "Of course," the sheriff said reflectively. "Of course there's just a chance that Cal lied to me." "He lied all right," Carp prophesied. "I'd bet my shirt he'll stand to pay the price for every man that's cited on that list." "Shaw," the sheriff deprecated. "That's dead against the law, that is. He can't do that." "He will do it," Carp predicted. "If I was on that list I'd be moving for somewheres a long ways remote from here." "Then you'd better be starting," Alden counseled mildly. "For Harris was just telling me that your name had got mixed up with it. Morrow's name has sprung up too. Cal seemed mystified as to how it had come about for he says you and Morrow never rode with the others on the list. He couldn't figure how this thing come to start." "Figure!" Carp snapped. "He figured it out himself, who else? Are you going to stand for his putting a price on every man he happens to dislike?" "But he says he don't know anything about it," the sheriff expostulated. "So how can I prove he does? I'd like to know for sure. If I thought he was actually set to pay those rewards I'd have to ride over and remonstrate with Cal. That would be in defiance of the law." One or two who had been drinking with Carp moved over to speak with others and failed to return. He was left standing alone at the bar. He shrugged his shoulders and went out. "Folks are considerable like sheep," Brill observed. It occurred to him that in every saloon and in every bunk house within a hundred miles the topic of conversation was the same. He lowered one lid as he looked at the sheriff and jerked his head toward Carson. "He's broke--and reformed," he said. "Absolutely." The sheriff drew Carson aside. "If you're wanting a job I'll stake you to an outfit and feed you through till spring. Forty a month from then on. I'll need a parcel of deputies, likely, after that." "You've got one," Carson stated. "I'll sign now." The storekeeper, the sheriff and the new deputy stood at one end of the bar. "It's queer that folks don't see the real object of this rumor," Brill observed. "Its object is to clean out the hardest citizens in the country," Carson said. "That's why they're named. Why else?" "The object is to clean up the rest of the country first," Brill said. Carson grunted his disbelief.