"Yeah," Allen said indifferently. "Tom, I hears yuh fellows talkin' last night where yuh lost the trail. I hears that Dutchy was downed, but don't hear nothin' about Snippets being run off. So I takes after the killers an' downs 'em." They glanced from the little outlaw in the chair to one another, then back again. Windy Sam dug Tad Hicks in the ribs. "Yuh know him?" he whispered. "The Wolf," Tad replied. "I knows that, but take a look at them pants," Windy muttered. "The hobo! He talks of downin' gents like yuh does prairie hens, an' we come near beatin' hell out of him," Tad Hicks exclaimed in an awe-struck whisper. "But the girl! Snippets! What are you going to do about her?" Jim Hogg demanded impatiently. "I thinks I knows where she is," Allen replied wearily. "Let's get goin' then!" The choleric little storekeeper seized his hat. "It can't be did. They got her over in the lava fields. I got to trail 'em. I found where they went in and I've got to pick the rest out," Allen said flatly. "We got twenty men out there and a hundred more scattered about. We'll comb them hills and find her," Jim Hogg insisted. Allen shook his head. Sam Hogg and the sheriff looked at each other. They knew Allen was lying. For if there had been a single chance of Snippets being taken over the border he would be wasting no time in words. They could not fathom why he was lying. "Looka here, there ain't no use being stubborn," Jim Hogg growled at Allen. "We _got_ to do something." "Go ahead," Allen replied. He looked at Sam Hogg and added: "I'm goin' now. Where's them hosses of mine?" "Don't yuh go 'way, sheriff," Jim Hogg cried as his brother and Allen started toward the rear door. "I'm goin' to see the judge and make him order yuh to hunt for that gal." As the furious storekeeper stormed out of the room Allen winked at Sam Hogg and the sheriff. Outside, while he was saddling his horses, he explained. "The Toad's got the Yuma Kid and Baldy and them two brothers watchin' the girl. What happens if we go chargin' in there? Do yuh think them four will give her up? And if we kill 'em they'll sure enough take her with them." "What yuh goin' to do?" the sheriff asked. "I'm hopin' Jim, your brother'll do it for me. The Toad plumb hates me, an' if he could down me he'd be willin' to cut and run for Mexico after. When he hears I'm goin' to try and pick out the trail through the lava fields I sorta figure he'll tell his killers to hike it over there and get me; then I'll get the girl." "And yuh lied deliberate to fool Jim?" Sam Hogg asked. "Jim is right convincin' when he's got his mad up, an' I don't think he's a good liar. I figure there'll be some one who will be plumb anxious to pass the news on to the Toad." Then Allen talked rapidly for a few minutes and the others listened in silence. After Allen had vanished into the night the sheriff said admiringly: "Gosh, ain't he a hellion?"