"If we do, we can split the profits over again. I'll take no money out of a thing that cost Allister's death. There's my sack on the floor of the shack. Divvy it up among you. You fitted me out when I was broke. That'll pay you back. Do we split up?" "They's no reason why we should--and be run down like rabbits," said Joe Clune, with another of those terrible glances over his shoulder into the night. The others assented with so many growls. "All right," said Andrew, "we stick together. And, if we stick together, I run this camp." "You?" asked Larry la Roche. "Who picked you? Who 'lected you, son? Why, you unlucky--" "Ease up," said Andrew softly. The eyes of La Roche flicked across the circle and picked up the glances of the others, but they were not yet ready to tackle Andrew Lanning. "The last thing Allister did," said Andrew, "was to make me his lieutenant. It's the last thing he did, and I'm going to push it through. Not because I like the job." He raised his head, but not his voice. "They may run down the rest of you. They won't run down me. They can't. They've tried, and they can't. And I might be able to keep the rest of you clear. I'm going to try. But I won't follow the lead of any of you. If there'd been one that could keep the rest of you together, d'you think Allister wouldn't have seen it? Don't you think he would of made that one leader? Why, look at you! Jeff, you'd follow Clune. But would Larry or Scottie follow Clune? Look at 'em and see!" All eyes went to Clune, and then the glances of Scottie and La Roche dropped. "Nobody here would follow La Roche. He's the best man we've got for some of the hardest work, but you're too flighty with your temper, Larry, and you know it. We respect you just as much, but not to plan things for the rest of us. Is that straight? "And you, Scottie," said Andrew, "you're the only one I'd follow. I say that freely. But who else would follow you? You're the best of us all at headwork and planning, but you don't swing your gun as fast, and you don't shoot as straight as Jeff or Larry or Joe. Is that straight?" "What's leading the gang got to do with fighting?" asked Scottie harshly. "And who's got the right to the head of things but me?" "Ask Allister what fighting had to do with the running of things," said Andrew calmly. The moon was sliding up out of the east; it changed the faces of the men and made them oddly animallike; they stared, fascinated, at Andrew. "There's two reasons why I'm going to run this job, if we stick together. Allister named them once. I can take advice from any one of you; I know what each of you can do; I can plan a job for you; I can lead you clear of the law--and there's not one of you that can bully me or make me give an inch--no, nor all of you together--La Roche! Macdougal! Clune! Rankin!"