Page:The Trail Rider (1924).pdf/176

 emergency. He must ride that mood out of his blood, and consider this thing from all the angles that experience had given him.

Impossible as the cattlemen's task appeared, it would speak better for his honor to attempt it and fall at the Texans' hands than to leave the country without having tried it, or return and kill Winch. Killing Winch would not vindicate him of the present charge. It would only make men a little more afraid of him, and perhaps darken the cloud of suspicion and distrust that had so unfortunately descended upon him.