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So when they got free they put their heads together bein' uncommon wise kids and figured it out this way. Neither of 'em had a chance workin' alone to get Joan way from her father's gang, but workin' together they might have a ghost of a show. So they decided to stay on the trail of Piotto till they got Joan.
The love of Bard and Drew for Joan Piotto had not died, but passed through the flame and the torment of the three ruined lives and returned again with gathering power as the force which swept him and Sally Fortune out into that river and toward that far-off sea. The last mist was brushed from his eyes. He saw with a piercing vision the world, himself, life.
They was young, they looked like gentlemen, they was dressed nifty, and they packed big rolls. So wise old Piotto took 'em off into the hills and held 'em till their folks back East could wire out the money to save 'em. That was easy money for Piotto, but that was the beginnin' of the end for him; because while they was waitin', them two kids seen Joan and seen her good.
Them was the sort I learned to ride the range with." "I've heard something about a fight which you and John Bard had against the Piotto gang. Care to tell me anything of it?" Lawlor lolled easily back in his chair and balanced a second large drink between thumb and forefinger. "There ain't no harm in talk, son; sure I'll tell you about it. What d'you want to know?"
"The way Bard fought the way you both fought." "Lemme see." He closed his eyes like one who strives to recollect; he was, in fact, carefully recalling the skeleton of facts which Drew had told him earlier in the day. "Six months, me and Bard had been trailin' Piotto, damn his old soul! Bard he'd of quit cold a couple of times, but I kept him at it."
"They made up their minds that right there and then with the dead men lyin' all around 'em, they'd match coins to see which one would take the blame of havin' killed Piotto meanin' that the other one would get the girl if he could. "And Bard lost. So he had to take the credit of havin' killed old Piotto.
"I been telling you she was better'n two common men. She was. Which means she was equal to about ten ordinary girls. There's still a legend about how beautiful Joan Piotto was tall and straight and big black eyes and terrible handy with her gun. She could ride anything that walked and she didn't know what fear meant. "These two kids seen her. One of 'em was William Drew; one of 'em was John Bard."
"But now and then a gang held together long enough to raise so much hell that they got known from one end of the range to the other. Mostly they held together because they had a leader who knew how to handle 'em and who kept 'em under his thumb. That was the way with old Piotto. "He had five men under him.
"'Nobody's there, sings out the voice of old Piotto. 'We can trust Tom Shaw, jest because he knows that if he double-crossed us he'd be the first man to die. "And we heard Tom say, sort of quaverin': 'God's sake, boys, what d'you think I am? "'Now, says Bard, and we put our shoulders to the door, and takes our guns in our hands we each had two.
"The door went down like nothin', because we was both husky fellers in them days, and as she smashed in the fall upset two of the boys sittin' closest and gave 'em no chance on a quick draw. The rest of 'em was too paralyzed at first, except old Piotto. He pulled his gun, but what he shot was Tom Shaw, who jest leaned forward in his chair and crumpled up dead. "We went at 'em, pumpin' lead.
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