Page:Ritchie - Trails to Two Moons.djvu/223

 dark. Agnew guided himself with a lighted match to the cell the outlaw occupied and with a special key turned the lock. Whistler stepped out into the corridor at the sheriff's beckoning and followed him down to the door through the outer barrier. Agnew pushed him through and then locked the gate behind him.

"Hey!" was the hail out of the dark wilderness of steel; it was the Killer's voice. "Hey, sheriff, don't I come in on this? You 're not goin' to leave me here, sheriff, with that mob bustin' in to get me?"

"Maybe you 're safer than you think right here," was the cryptic comfort Agnew called back to the only remaining occupant of the cage, and he drew Whistler with him out to the head of the stairs, whence his voice could not carry to the wretch left behind.

"Zang, there 's hell to pay, as I reckon you 've been hearing. The town boys 're aiming to break in and get the Killer. A bunch of cow-punchers is tied into 'em with the idea, of course, of freeing the Killer and nabbin' you. If the cattle outfit should win out you 'd be a goner, Zang." The outlaw chuckled. "I 'm sorta violatin' my oath to do this, Zang,