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One of Webb's men had deliberately and defiantly killed two of his riders when the town was full of his employees. The man had walked into Tolleson's a place which he, Snaith, practically owned himself and flung down the gauntlet to the whole Lazy S M outfit. It was a flagrant insult and Wallace Snaith proposed to see that it was avenged. "I'm going duck-hunting to-morrow, dad," Lee told him.
"Mr. Snaith" selected one from them quickly but with care, choosing the strongest.
"It is really remarkable, if you will permit me to say so." Snaith was studying his host's face intently. "Higgins, poor fellow, had his faith shaken to the foundations. This Anisty must be a clever actor as well as a master burglar. Having cursed Higgins root and branch, he got his second wind and explained that he was Mr. Maitland! Conceive Higgins' position. What could he do?"
In the war just starting, the cattleman needed men of nerve to lead his forces. He offered a place to Clanton, who jumped at the chance to get on the pay-roll of Lee's father. "Bring yore friend Billie Prince to the store," suggested Snaith. "He's not workin' for Webb now. I can make a place for him, too." Billie came, listened to the proposition of the grim old-timer, and declined quietly.
He could not talk about it without breaking down. In the stress of a great shock Billie had made a vital discovery. The most important thing that would ever come to him in life was to find Lee Snaith alive. How blind he had been!
"Not comin'! D'ye mean you've taken up with a pair of killers, of outlaws we 're goin' to put out of business? You talk like a like a " "Go slow, Snaith!" cut in Prince sharply. "Can't you see she's tryin' to save you from murder?" "We're goin' to take those boys back to Los Portales with us or their bodies. I don't care a whole lot which. You light a shuck out of there, Lee."
I have no choice in the matter. You must see that." Snaith shook his head, baffled, infinitely perturbed, to Maitland's hidden delight. "Of course," said he, "the policeman at the ferry recognized me?" "You are well known to him," admitted Snaith. "But that is a side issue. What puzzles me is why you let Anisty escape. It is inconceivable." "From a police point of view."
He was an old plainsman, tough as leather, and he had weathered the storm safely. A full day late he staggered into Live-Oaks a sorry sight. The news that shook Live-Oaks into swift activity had to do with Lee Snaith. Just before the storm hit him the buckboard driver had met her riding toward the Mal-Pais. Prince arrived to find the town upside down with the confusion of preparation.
"Why," crisply, "didn't you send the constables from Greenfields, according to your promise?" Maitland laughed uneasily and looked down, visibly embarrassed, acting with consummate address, playing the game for all he was worth; and enjoying it hugely. "Why.... I.... Really, Mr. Snaith, I must confess " "A confession would aid us materially," dryly. "The case is perplexing.
"The less chances one takes, the better," soliloquized "Mr. Snaith." He stood erect, in another man's shoes, squaring back his shoulders, discarding the disguising stoop, and confronted his image in a pier-glass. "Good enough Maitland," he commented, with a little satisfied nod to his counterfeit presentment. "But we'll make it better still."
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