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286 pay off the men, had gotten the amount in gold and bank notes and, planning on riding early in the morning, had carried it with him to his room. He had been robbed by men whose faces he had not seen, men who had broken into his room and had beaten him into insensibility. … Hansen hadn't all of the details yet; Wendall was still too weak to talk much. …. He had been on his way to get help when he had fainted and Hansen stumbled over him. … Hansen didn't know how much money …

The money was the least of it just then to Bill Steele; for already had the word "Embry" shaped large in his brain. He gave orders for Wendall to be taken care of, then rang up his foreman in Bear Town, telling him curtly to lose not a second in posting men to see that the fires of Indian City were not duplicated. Then he jerked off his coat, sat down and thought.

Just how big the pay roll was he himself did not know. Some of the men accepted a monthly wage; others were paid up each Saturday night. Wendall might have had only a couple of thousand dollars with him or he might have had five thousand.

"Joe Embry's work as sure as water runs down hill," he grimted angrily. "Arranged to pull off both jobs and, as usual, hired the jobs done. And, by the Lord, it looks as if he were playing safe, too, with Jim Banks muzzled … and Embry with an alibi! Damn that kind of a man!"

Embry was heard from, Embry would be heard from again. Of that, at least, he was sure.

"There's just one thing," he cried out suddenly,