"Sure not," came several voices in chorus.

Hollis laughed. "But you took the surest way of making me appear so," he returned.

He saw Norton's face flush and he knew that the latter had already grasped the significance of his words. But the others, simpler of mind, reasoning by no involved process, looked at him, plainly puzzled. He would have to explain more fully to them. He did so. When he had shown them that in hanging the rustler he would be violating the principle that he had elected to defend, they stood before him abashed, thoroughly disarmed. All except Ace. The poet's mind was still active.

"I reckon you might say you didn't know nothin' about us hangin' him?"

he suggested.

"So I might," returned Hollis. "But people would not think so. And there is my conscience. It wouldn't be such a weight upon it--the hanging of this man; I believe I would enjoy standing here and watching him stretch your rope. But I would not be able to reconcile the action with the principle for which I am fighting. I believe none of you men would trust me very much if I advocated the law one day and broke it the next. The application of this principle would be much the same as if I stole a horse to-day and to-morrow had you arrested for stealing one."

"That's so," they chorused, and fell silent, regarding him with a new interest.

"But what are you goin' to do with the cuss?" queried one man.

"We have a sheriff in Dry Bottom, I expect?" questioned Hollis.

Grins appeared on the faces of several of the men; the prisoner's face lighted.

"Oh, yes," said one; "I reckon Bill Watkins is the sheriff all right."

"Then we'll take him to Bill Watkins," decided Hollis.

The grins on the faces of several of the men grew. Norton laughed.

"I reckon you ain't got acquainted with Bill yet, Hollis," he said.

"Bill owes his place to Dunlavey. There has never been a rustler convicted by Watkins yet. I reckon there won't ever be any convicted--unless he's been caught stealin' Dunlavey's cattle. Bill's justice is a joke."

Hollis smiled grimly. He had learned that much from Judge Graney. He did not expect to secure justice, but he wished to have something tangible upon which to work to force the law into the country. His duty in the matter consisted only in delivering the prisoner into the custody of the authorities, which in this case was the sheriff. The sheriff would be held responsible for him. He said this much to the men. There was no other lawful way.

He was not surprised that they agreed with him. They had had much experience in dealing with Dunlavey; they had never been successful with the old methods of warfare and they were quite willing to trust to Hollis's judgment.

"I reckon you're just about right," said one who had spoken before.

"Stringin' this guy up would finish him all right. But that wouldn't settle the thing. What's needed is to get it fixed up for good an' all."

"Correct!" agreed Hollis; "you've got it exactly. We might hang a dozen men for stealing cattle and we could go on hanging them. We've got no right to hang anyone--we've got a law for that purpose. Then let us make the law act!"

The prisoner had stood in his place, watching the men around him, his face betraying varying emotions. When it had been finally agreed to take him to Dry Bottom and deliver him over to the sheriff he grinned broadly. But he said nothing as they took the rope from around his neck, forced him to mount a horse and surrounding him, rode out of the cottonwood toward the Circle Bar ranchhouse.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE TENTH DAY

Dusk had fallen by the time Greasy had been brought to the bunkhouse, and Mrs. Norton had lighted the kerosene lamps when Norton and Hollis, a.s.sured of the safety of the prisoner, left the bunkhouse and went into the house for supper. Potter had washed the dust of travel from him and when Norton and Hollis arrived he was seated on the porch, awaiting them. Mrs. Norton greeted them with a smile. Her eyes expressed grat.i.tude as they met Hollis's.

"I am so glad you were in time," she said. "I told Neil not to do it, but he was determined and wouldn't listen to me."

"You might have tried 'bossing' him," suggested Hollis, remembering his range boss's words on the occasion of his first meeting with Norton's wife. He looked straight at Norton, his eyes narrowing quizzically. "You know you told me once that----"

"Mebbe I was stretchin' things a little when I told you that,"

interrupted Norton, grinning shamelessly. "If a man told the truth all the time he'd have a hard time keepin' ahead of a woman."

"'Woman--she don't need no tooter,'" quoted Hollis. "It has taken you a long time to discover what Ace has apparently known for years. And Ace is only a bachelor."

Norton's eyes lighted. "You're gettin' back at me for what I said to you the day before yesterday--when you stopped off at Hazelton's," he declared. "All the same you'll know more about women when you've had more experience with them. When I told you that I'd been 'bossed,' I didn't mean that I'd been bossed regular. No woman that knows just how much she can run a man ever lets him know that she's bossin' him. Mebbe she'll act like she's lettin' him have his own way. But she's bossin'

him just the same. He sort of likes it, I reckon. At least it's only when a man gets real mad that he does a little bossin' on his own account. And then, like as not, he'll find that he's made a big mistake.

Like I did to-day about hangin' Greasy, for instance."

Hollis bowed gravely to Mrs. Norton. "I think he ought to be forgiven, Mrs. Norton," he said. "Day before yesterday he presumed to lecture me on the superiority of the married male over the unmarried one. And now he humbly admits to being bossed. What then becomes of his much talked of superiority? Shall I--free and unbossed--admit inferiority?"

Mrs. Norton smiled wisely as she moved around the table, arranging the dishes. "I couldn't decide that," she said, "until it is explained to me why so many men are apparently so eager to engage a boss."

"I reckon that settles that argument!" gloated Norton.

Had this conversation taken place two months before Hollis might have answered, Why, indeed, were men so eager to engage a boss? Two months before he might have answered cynically, remembering the unhappiness of his parents. That he did not answer now showed that he was no longer cynical; that he had experienced a change of heart.

Of course Mrs. Norton knew this--Norton must have told her. He could appreciate the subtle mockery that had suggested the question, but he did not purpose to allow Norton to sit there and enjoy the confusion that was sure to overtake him did he attempt to continue the argument with Mrs. Norton. He was quite certain that Norton antic.i.p.ated such an outcome.

"Perhaps Norton can answer that?" he suggested mildly.

"I ain't no good at guessin' riddles," jeered Norton. "But I reckon you know--if you wanted to tell."

But Hollis did not tell, and the conversation shifted to other subjects.

After supper they went out upon the porch. A slight breeze had sprung up with the dusk, though the sky was still cloudless. At ten o'clock, when they retired, the breeze had increased in velocity, sighing mournfully through the trees in the vicinity of the ranchhouse, though there was no perceptible change in the atmosphere--it seemed that the wind was merely shifting the heat waves from one point to another.

"A good, decent rain would save lots of trouble to-morrow," said Norton as he and Hollis stood on the porch, taking a last look at the sky before going to bed.

"Do you really think Dunlavey will carry out his threat?" questioned Hollis. "Somehow I can't help but think that he was bluffing when he said it."

"He don't do much bluffin'," declared Norton. "At least he ain't done much up to now."

"But there is plenty of water in the Rabbit-Ear," returned Hollis; "plenty for all the cattle that are here now."

Norton flashed a swift glance at him. "That's because you don't know this country," he said. "Four years ago we had a dry spell. Not so bad as this, but bad enough. The Rabbit-Ear held up good enough for two months. Then she went dry sudden. There wasn't water enough in her to fill a thimble. I reckon you ain't been watchin' her for the last day or so?"

Hollis admitted that he had not seen the river within that time. Norton laughed shortly.

"She's dry in spots now," he informed Hollis. "There ain't any water at all in the shallows. It's tricklin' through in some places, but mostly there's nothin' but water holes an' dried, baked mud. In two days more, if it don't rain, there won't be water enough for our own stock. Then what?"

"There will be water for every steer on the range as long as it lasts,"

declared Hollis grimly. "After that we'll all take our medicine together."

"Good!" declared Norton. "That's what I expected of you. But I don't think it's goin' to work out that way. Weary was ridin' the Razor Back this mornin' and he says he saw Dunlavey an' Yuma and some more Circle Cross guys nosin' around behind some brush on the other side of the creek. They all had rifles."

Hollis's face paled slightly. "Where are the other men--Train and the rest?" he inquired.