ARGUEMENT

"Now look here, Starrett," Soames's voice was deliberate. "You be quiet, or I'll do for you. We ain't going to let this thing get by us, me and Dan. We ain't goin' to let this double-crossing' louse do us, and we ain't goin' to let you spill the beans by killings him. We've struck something big. All right, we're goin' to cash in on it. We're goin' to sit down peaceable, and Mister Graydon is goin' to tell us what happened after he put you out, what dicker he made with the girl and all of that. If he won't do it peaceable, then Mister Graydon is goin' to have things done to him that'll make him give up. That's all. Dan, let go his legs. Starrett, if you kick up any more trouble until I give the word I'm going to shoot you. From now on I boss this crowd—me and Dan. You get me, Starrett?"

Graydon, head once more clear, slid a cautious hand down toward the pistol holster. It was empty. Soames grinned, sardonically. "We got it, Graydon," he said. "Yours, too, Starrett. Fair enough. Sit down everybody." He squatted by the fire, still keeping Starrett covered. And after a moment the latter, grumbling, followed suit. Dan dropped beside him. "Come over here, Graydon," said Soames. "Come over here and cough up. What're you holding' out on us? Did you make a date with her to meet you after you got rid of us? If so, where is it—because we'll all go together."

"Where'd you hide those gold spears?" growled Starrett. "You never let her get away with them, that's sure." "Shut up, Starrett," ordered Soames. "I'm holdin' this inquest. Still—there's something in that. Was that it, Graydon? Did she give you the spears and her jewelry to let her go?" "I've told you," answered Graydon. "I asked for nothing, and took nothing. Starrett's drunken folly had put us all in jeopardy. Letting the girl go free was the first vital step toward our own safety. I thought it was the best thing to do. I still think so."

"Yeah?" sneered the lank New Englander, "is that so? Well, I'll tell you, Graydon, if she'd been an Indian maybe I'd agree with you. But not when she was the kind of lady Starrett says she was. No, sir, it ain't natural. You know damned well that if you'd been straight you'd have kept her here till Dan and me got back. Then we could all have got together and figured what was the best thing to do. Hold her until her folks came along and paid up to get her back undamaged. Or give her the third degree until she gave up where all that gold and stuff she was carrying came from. That's what you would have done, Graydon—if you weren't a dirty, lying', double-crossing hound." Graydon's anger flared up.

"All right, Soames," he said. "I'll tell you. What I've said about freeing her for our own safety is true. But outside of that I would as soon have thought of trusting a child to a bunch of hyenas as I would of trusting that girl to you three. I let her go a damned sight more for her sake than I did for our own. Does that satisfy you?"

"Aha!" jeered Dan. "Now I see! Here is this strange lady of so much wealth and beauty. She is too pure and good for us to behold. He tell her so and bid her fly. 'My hero!' she say, 'take all I have and give up this bad company.' 'No, no,' he tell her, thinking all the time if he play his cards right he get much more, and us out of the way so he need not divide, 'no, no,' he tell her. 'But long as these bad men stay here you will not be safe.' 'My hero,' she say, 'I will go and bring back my family and they shall dispose of your bad company. But you they shall reward, owe, my hero!' Aha, so that is what it was!