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enforced against any other man. But it drove Buck out.”
    â€œTo here?”
    â€œYes. Him and his friends. I was one of ’em. We blocked out this county in the upper basin and figured to drive stuff out any way but south.” He smiled wryly. “And then’s when we cut our own throats.”
    Webb asked why.
    â€œNorth and west you got a desert just over the mountains. East you got the Silver Horn Breaks, with no water. By the time your herd is half through it their feet are bleedin’. You’re lucky if you get a fifth of your herd through alive. And we can’t go south through Wintering.”
    â€œBut the railroad,” Webb said. “Ain’t there a railroad in Wintering that runs to Bull Foot?”
    â€œNo San Patricio man could reach it with a dozen head. They’d kill him. That’s Wake Bannister’s way of punishing Buck Tolleston and us. So we sit here bush-whackin’ over the county line, refusing to return each other’s prisoners and cussing each other out. San Patricio will be broke until we get the railroad here. And now, by the gods, this bank robbery has cleaned out what little we did have. Do you blame Tolleston for being mad?”
    Webb asked, “And you can’t cross over into Wintering to hunt the bank robbers?”
    â€œNot without havin’ to fight the whole county,” Wardecker said grimly.
    Webb settled back into silence, pondering what Wardecker had just told him. He didn’t see how he would be included in this fight. He had no share in it, nothing at stake here—only the winning of his freedom. And yet there were some things here he didn’t understand, and which he wanted to clear up. Was Tolleston recruiting gun fighters, and would he offer Webb his freedom if he would fight for him? Try as he might, Webb could think of no other reason for Wardecker’s saying what he had.
    â€œLook here, Wardecker. What started this row?” Webb asked. “What happened back in Texas?”
    Before the sheriff could answer, the door opened and Buck Tolleston entered. He only glanced at Wardecker and went over to Webb.
    â€œI was just talking to Iron Hat Petty,” Buck said with deceptive mildness. “He claims you and McWilliams stopped just outside of town for a parley before the bank was held up.”
    Webb rose and looked down at him, his patience evaporated in an instant. “That’s when I got the handcuffs, you jug-headed little fool!”
    Tolleston smiled meagerly. “It couldn’t have been, too, that you was a couple of minutes ahead of time, could it? It couldn’t have been that you stopped to look at your watch and stall for five minutes or so?”
    Wardecker heaved himself to his feet and reached for his crutch.
    â€œBuck, will you get the hell out of here?” he asked sternly. “Iron Hat Petty has been so drunk for the last ten years he couldn’t see that far. Now get out!”
    Tolleston’s face was dark with fury, but even he could see that Wardecker had lost his usual mildness and meant exactly what he said. He swallowed once, and without looking at the sheriff, said to Webb, “Come along,” and stomped out the door.
    Webb looked at Wardecker. “It’s mighty easy for a sheriff to lose a prisoner. You the kind that don’t care, Wardecker?”
    â€œNothin’ll happen. Only don’t fight with him.”
    â€œYou better gag me, then.”
    Wardecker grinned. “Maybe that would be better all around. Now go along, Cousins. And don’t make trouble. I’ll be seein’ you soon.”
    Tolleston was waiting outside. Together they walked down to the O. K. corral. Tolleston left orders for the three Broken Arrow hands in the posse to return to the ranch as soon as they could. From Iron Hat Petty he rented a horse. Webb got a look at Iron Hat, and his anger at the man died.
    Iron Hat was old, rheumatic, and moved with a