been heard from since. After Harkins had got rid of Ned and the boys
he manages to pay off that wonderful debt, and sells out for a hundred
thousand dollars. That money--Ned's money--he sends to Sacramento, for
he don't dare to travel with it himself, and is kalkilatin' to leave the
kentry, for some of the boys allow to kill him on sight. So ef you're
wantin' to hunt suthin', thar's yer chance, and you needn't go inter the
snow to do it."
"But surely the law can recover this money?" said Hale indignantly. "It
is as infamous a robbery as--" He stopped as he caught Zenobia's eye.
"Ez last night's, you were goin' to say. I'll call it MORE. Them road
agents don't pretend to be your friend--but take yer money and run their
risks. For ez to the law--that can't help yer."
"It's a skin game, and you might ez well expect to recover a gambling
debt from a short-card sharp," explained Clinch; "Falkner oughter shot
him on sight."
"Or the boys lynched him," suggested Rawlins.
"I think," said Hale, more reflectively, "that in the absence of legal
remedy a man of that kind should have been forced under strong physical
menace to give up his ill-gotten gains. The money was the primary
object, and if that could be got without bloodshed--which seems to me a
useless crime--it would be quite as effective. Of course, if there was
resistance or retaliation, it might be necessary to kill him."
He had unconsciously fallen into his old didactic and dogmatic habit of
speech, and perhaps, under the spur of Zenobia's eyes, he had given
it some natural emphasis. A dead silence followed, in which the others
regarded him with amused and gratified surprise, and it was broken only
by Zenobia rising and holding out her hand. "Shake!"
Hale raised it gallantly, and pressed his lips on the one spotless
finger.
"That's gospel truth. And you ain't the first white man to say it."
"Indeed," laughed Hale. "Who was the other?"
"George Lee!"
CHAPTER VI
The laughter that followed was interrupted by a sudden barking of
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