"Here's something more. For Jim Silent, dead or alive, the government will pay ten thousand dollars. For each of the other three it pays five thousand. The notices aren't out yet, but they will be in a few days. Hardy, if you help me bag these men, you'll get fifty per cent of the profits. Are you on?" The hesitancy of Hardy changed to downright enthusiasm. "Easy money, Tex. I'm your man, hand and glove." "Don't get optimistic. This game isn't played yet, and unless I make the biggest mistake of my life we'll be guessing again before we land Silent. I've trailed some fast gunmen in my day, and I have an idea that Silent will be the hardest of the lot; but if you play your end of the game we may land him. I have a tip that he's lying out in the country near Elkhead. I'm riding out alone to get track of him. As I go out I'll tell my men that you're O.K. for this business." He hesitated a moment with his hand on the door knob. "Just one thing more, Hardy. I heard a queer tale this morning about a fight in a saloon run by a man named Morgan. Do you know anything about it?" "No." "I was told of a fellow who chipped four dollars thrown into the air at twenty yards." "That's a lie." "The man who talked to me had a nicked dollar to prove his yarn." "The devil he did!" "And after the shooting this chap got into a fight with a tall man twice his size and fairly mopped up the floor with him. They say it wasn't a nice thing to watch. He is a frail man, but when the fight started he turned into a tiger." "Wish I'd seen it." "The tall man tallies to a hair with my description of Silent." "You're wrong. I know what Silent can do with his hands. No one could beat him up. What's the name of the other?" "Barry. Whistling Dan Barry." Calder hesitated. "Right or wrong, I'd like to have this Barry with me. So long." He was gone as he had come, with a nod and a flash of the keen, black eyes. Lee Hardy stared at the door for some moments, and then went outside. The warm light of the sun had never been more welcome to him. Under that cheering influence he began to feel that with Tex Calder behind him he could safely defy the world. His confidence received a shock that afternoon when a heavy step crossed the outside room, and his door opening without a preliminary knock, he looked up into the solemn eyes of Jim Silent. The outlaw shook his head when Hardy offered him a chair. "What's the main idea of them two new men out in your front room, Lee?" he asked. "Two cowpunchers that was down on their luck. I got to stand in with the boys now and then." "I s'pose so. Shorty Rhinehart in here to see you, Lee?" "Yep." "You told him that the town was gettin' pretty hot." "It is." "You said you had no dope on when that delayed shipment was comin' through?" Hardy made lightning calculations. A half truth would be the best way out. "I've just got the word you want. It come this morning." Silent's expression changed and he leaned a little closer.