“That means we are in more serious trouble than I had supposed.” “Y’u bet it does. We’re in a hell of a hole, figure it out any way y’u like. Instead of having shot up a casual idiot, I’ve killed Ned Bannister’s right-hand man. That will be the excuse—shooting Morgan. But the real trouble is that I won the championship belt from your cousin. He already hated y’u like poison, and he don’t love me any too hard. He will have us arrested by his sheriff here. Catch the point. _Y’u’re Ned Bannister, the outlaw, and I’m his right-bower_. That’s the play he’s going to make, and he’s going to make it right soon.” “I don’t care if he does. We’ll fight him on his own ground. We’ll prove that he’s the miscreant and not us.” “Prove nothing,” snarled McWilliams. “Do y’u reckon he’ll give us a chance to prove a thing? Not on your life. He’ll have us jailed first thing; then he’ll stir up a sentiment against us, and before morning there will be a lynchingbee, and y’u and I will wear the neckties. How do y’u like the looks of it?” “But y’u have a lot of friends. They won’t stand for anything like that.” “Not if they had time to stop it. Trouble is, fellow’s friends think awful slow. They’ll arrive in time to cut us down and be the mourners. No, sir! It’s a hike for Jimmie Mac on the back of the first bronc he can slap a saddle on.” Bannister frowned. “I don’t like to run before the scurvy scoundrels.” “Do y’u suppose I’m enjoying it? Not to any extent, I allow. But that sweet relative of yours holds every ace in the deck, and he’ll play them, too. He owns the law in this man’s town, and he owns the lawless. But the best card he holds is that he can get a thousand of the best people here to join him in hanging the ‘king’ of the Shoshone outlaws. Explanations nothing! Y’u _rode_ under the name of Bannister, didn’t y’u? He’s Jack Holloway.” “It does make a strong combination,” admitted the sheepman. “Strong! It’s invincible. I can see him playing it, laughing up his sleeve all the time at the honest fools he is working. No, sir! I draw out of a game like that. Y’u don’t get a run for your money.” “Of course he knows already what has happened,” mused Bannister. “Sure he knows. That fellow with Morgan made a bee-line for him. Just about now he’s routing the sheriff out of his bed. We got no time to lose. Thing is, to burn the wind out of this town while we have the chance.” “I see. It won’t help us any to be spilling lead into a sheriff’s posse. That would ce’tainly put us in the wrong.” “Now y’u’re shouting. If we’re honest men why don’t we surrender peaceable? That’s the play the ‘king’ is going to make in this town. Now if we should spoil a posse and bump off one or two of them, we couldn’t pile up evidence enough to get a jury to acquit. No, sir! We can’t surrender and we can’t fight. Consequence is, we got to roll our tails immediate.”