"And the people over in the Red Queen will think yuh're in jail," the sheriff chuckled. "A good alibi." "I suppose yuh want to learn what I found out. Maybe yuh recollect a hombre what used to hang out along the Texas border about seven years ago what called himself '_le Diable à Cheval_?'" "Yuh betcha--and he was some devil, too," the sheriff said. "He used to steal girls over the border and hold 'em fer ransom," Allen went on. "I followed the gent--the Devil on Horseback--for near a month, then I ketched him and downed him." The sheriff stared. "He had four sons by four wives, and all four sons is right here in town. One of 'em ain't far from us here." "You mean Pete Cable?" the sheriff demanded. "Sure. That's why the other three are raising such hell to keep Pete from stretching hemp. I betcha yuh could guess another if yuh thinks hard enough." Without a moment's hesitation the sheriff answered. "The Toad! An' I'd say I knew the third if he weren't white." "Didn't I tell yuh they had different mothers?" Allen grinned. "Then Anderson did fix those bandages!" the sheriff cried with an oath. "Who's the fourth?" he asked. "I ain't got no idea--don't even know what he looks like. But I did hear once that a gent in Texas who was called 'Cupid Dart' was a son of the Devil." "The two-gun sheriff and bad man?" "The same." Briefly Allen told the sheriff about the death list he had heard the unknown man read out in the secret room. "Two nights from now yuh have Tim Lynch, the Hogg brothers, Doc Robinson an' yourself meet me at the judge's, an' I'll have somethin' to tell yuh," he promised. "An' yuh can warn them gents that the bunch they calls the Lava Gang is goin' to down 'em, 'cause if they can get the judge's crowd out of the way, they can run things as they choose. With Anderson controllin' the white vote, and the Toad the greaser vote, they'd sure break this country wide open and plenty. Yuh and yuhr friends be careful." The sheriff shook his head. As yet they had no proof against their enemies. Yet there was something in the matter-of-fact way Allen spoke that made him hope their difficulties would be over soon. "Yuh got a back door here?" Allen asked. The sheriff led him to the small door that opened into a vacant lot behind the jail. "Yuh tell Dutchy not to let Snippets out of his sight," Allen gave his final warning. He vanished into the night. Scarcely had the door closed on him when some one pounded on the front door. The sheriff opened it to an excited news bearer. "Some one knifed Doc Robinson," gasped the man. The sheriff called two of his deputies and ran to the doctor's house. The doctor had been knifed in bed. No one had seen the murderer come or go.