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Rh “I thought maybe they wouldn't get down to talk,” he murmured. But since the last chance for a battle was gone, he stepped fearlessly from behind his rock and advanced into the open. Two tall figures came to meet him.

“Now,” said Lee Haines, stalking forward. “One bad move, just the glint of a single gun from the rest of you sheep thieves, and I'll tame your pet sheriff and send him to hell for a model.”

They halted, close to each other, the two big men, Haines in the front, and the sheriff.

“You're Lee Haines?”

“You've named me.”

“And you're Buck Daniels?”

“That's me.”

“Gents, you've resisted an officer of the law in the act of makin' an arrest. I s'pose you know what that means?”

Big Lee Haines laughed.

“Don't start a bluff, sheriff. I know a bit about the law.”

“Maybe by experience?”

It was an odd thing to watch the three, every one of them a practiced fighter, every one of them primed for trouble, but each ostentatiously keeping his hands away from the holsters.

“What we might have done if we had come to a pinch,” said Haines, “is one thing, and what we did do is another. Barry was started and off before we