Obviously he was wrong, and obviously not one of his henchmen would tell him so.  For some reason the boss intended to take up the lost battle of Jack Hood.  Why, was not theirs to reason, though plainly the fight had been fair, and Hood had been in the wrong from the first.  They shifted swiftly, a man to each door, the others along the wall with their hands on their weapons.  There was a change in Bull Hunter.  One long leap backward carried him into a corner of the room.  He stood erect, and they could see his eyes gleaming in the shadow.

“I think you got me here to trap me, Dunbar,” he called in such a voice that the little man in the shadow thrilled at the sound of it, “but you’ll find that you’re trapped first, my friend.  Touch that gun of yours, and you’re a dead man, Dunbar.  Curse you, I dare you to go for it!”

Could this be Bull Hunter speaking?  The little man in the shadow thrilled with joyous amazement.

Hal Dunbar evidently was going to fight the thing through.  He stood swaying a little from side to side.  “No guns out, boys, as yet.  Wait till I take my crack at him, and then—­”

The little man in the shadow stepped out into the light and walked calmly toward the center of the room.

“Just a little wee minute, Dunbar,” he was saying.  “Just a little wee minute, Mr. Man-trapper Dunbar!  I got a word to say.”

“Who the devil are you?” cried Hal Dunbar, turning on this puny stranger.

A joyous shout from Bull Hunter drowned the answer of the other.

“Pete!  Pete Reeve!”

The little man waved his hand carelessly to the giant in the corner.

“You give me a hard trail, Bull, old boy.  But you didn’t think you could slip me, did you?  Not much.  And here I am, pretty pronto on the dot, I figure.”  He took in with a glance the men along the walls.  “You know me, boys, and I’m here to see fair play.  They ain’t going to be fair play in this room with you boys lined up waiting to drop Bull in case he plugs Dunbar.  Dunbar, I know you.  And between you and me, I don’t know no good of you.  You’re young, but you’re going to show later on.  If you want to talk business to Bull Hunter some other time, you’re welcome to come finding him, and he won’t be hard to find.  Bull, come along with me.  Just back up, if you don’t mind, Bull.  Because they’s murder in our friend Dunbar’s face.  And here we are!”

Side by side they drew back to the outer door with big Hal Dunbar watching them from under a scowl, with never a word, and so through the door and into the night.

Two minutes later Diablo was rocking across the hills with his mighty stride, and the cow pony of Pete Reeve was pattering beside him.

As they drove through the great spruces the moon rose.  Bull Hunter greeted it with a thundering song and threw up his hands to it.

Pete Reeve swore softly in amazement and drew his horse to a walk.