The tall roan raised his head and whinnied softly. It was an unearthly effect--as if the animal heard the sound which was inaudible to all but his master. It changed big Jim Silent into a quavering coward. Here were five practised fighters who feared nothing between heaven and hell, but what could they avail him against a bodiless spirit? The whistling stopped. He breathed again, but only for a moment. It began again, and this time much louder and nearer. Surely the others must hear it now, or else it was certainly a ghost. The men sat with dilated eyes for an instant, and then Hal Purvis cried, "I heard it, chief! If it's a ghost, it's hauntin' me too!" Silent cursed loudly in his relief. "It ain't a ghost. It's Whistlin' Dan himself. An' Terry Jordan has been carryin' us lies! What in hell do you mean by it?" "I ain't been carryin' you lies," said Jordan, hotly. "I told you what I heard. I didn't never say that there was any one seen his dead body!" The whistling began to die out. A babble of conjecture and exclamation broke out, but Jim Silent, still sickly white around the mouth, swung up into the saddle. "That Whistlin' Dan I'm leavin' to you, Haines," he called. "I've had his blood onct, an' if I meet him agin there's goin' to be another notch filed into my shootin' iron." CHAPTER X THE STRENGTH OF WOMEN He rode swiftly into the dark of the willows, and the lack of noise told that he was picking his way carefully among the bended branches. "It seems to me," said Terry Jordan, "which I'm not suggestin' anything--but it seems to me that the chief was in a considerable hurry to leave the camp." "He was," said Hal Purvis, "an' if you seen that play in Morgan's place you wouldn't be wonderin' why. If I was the chief I'd do the same." "Me speakin' personal," remarked Shorty Rhinehart, "I ain't layin' out to be no man-eater like the chief, but I ain't seen the man that'd make me take to the timbers that way. I don't noways expect there _is_ such a man!" "Shorty," said Haines calmly, "we all knows that you're quite a man, but you and Terry are the only ones of us who are surprised that Silent slid away. The rest of us who saw this Whistling Dan in action aren't a bit inclined to wonder. Suppose you were to meet a black panther down here in the willows?" "I wouldn't give a damn if I had my Winchester with me." "All right, Terry, but suppose the panther," broke in Hal Purvis, "could sling shootin' irons as well as you could--maybe _that'd_ make you partic'ler pleased." "It ain't possible," said Terry. "Sure it ain't," grinned Purvis amiably, "an' this Barry ain't possible, either. Where you going, Lee?" Haines turned from his task of saddling his mount. "Private matter. Kilduff, you take my place while I'm gone. I may be back tomorrow night. The chief isn't apt to return so soon."