All the same he's in my outfit an' I reckon you might get along. It's Heeseman who sticks in my craw."

"Heeseman? Who's he?"

"You'll take this as confidence, in case you don't want to throw in with me?" queried Hays, earnestly.

"Yes. I'll regard it all that way."

"Wal, Heeseman is the rustler of Dragon Canyon. None of the ranchers even round here know thet, but _I_ know it. He's got a small outfit, but shore enough bad. An' in some way he got wind of Herrick's scheme. Damn me if he didn't pack over to Henrys with his outfit an' start ridin' fer Herrick."

"Heeseman saw the same opportunity as you?" queried Wall, quietly.

"Wal, yes, I was comin' to thet," resumed Hays, gruffly. "I got the upper hand, though, an' I'll be the boss. Thet'll lead to friction, shore as hell. There'll be two factions sooner or later, an' the sooner thet fight comes off the better."

"I see. Less of a division of spoils."

"Wall, I'm no rustler," snapped Hays, annoyed.

"Excuse me. If it isn't impertinent, may I ask just what you are?"

"Ever hear of Henry Plummer?"

"Can't remember if I did."

"Wall, Plummer flourished some ten an' more years ago, first in Montana an' later in Idaho. He was the greatest robber the West ever developed. Educated man of good family, born in the East.

But the gold fever called an' he was not the kind of a man to dig.

He operated on the placer mines. Was an officer of the law while he was head of the biggest robber gang the frontier ever knew.

From Bannock to Lewiston he kept the miners, the stages, the Wells Fargo in terror for years. . . . Wal, I seen Plummer hanged. I was one of his gang, a young man then in years."

"Thanks for the confidence, Hays," returned Wall, in surprise.

"You must have strong interest in me to tell that."

"Shore I have. But I don't care to be classed as a rustler."

"Too low down, eh--Well, then, what's your plan with Herrick?"

"It certainly ain't any two-bit cattle-stealin'. . . . However, thet's not the point between you an' me. What I want to know is, will you take a job in my outfit?"

"That depends, Hays," returned Wall, ponderingly.

"Any scruples about it? Remember, I come clean with you."

"No. I broke jail in Cheyenne."

"What was you in for?"

"Shot a man. They were goin' to hang me."

"Ahuh. Was thet square?"

"I didn't think so. .