“You can have two of ’em,” conceded Mr. Saltoun.  “The bridle’s off.”

“Aw right, I’ll take Swing Tunstall,” Racey hastened to say.

“I meant yore own two hands,” demurred Mr. Saltoun.

“I know you did, but I meant the other kind.  Listen, do you want Lanpher and Tweezy to get this ranch?”

“——­ it, no!”

“Then gimme Swing Tunstall.”

“Take him.  Need anybody else?  Wouldn’t you like all the rest of the outfit, and me, too?”

“My Gawd, no.  This is a job requirin’ brains.”

“Say, lookit here, Racey—­”

“When you get to the ranch tell Swing to come along soon as he can,” interrupted Racey.  “I’ll be expecting him.”

Tuckety-tuck!  Tuckety-tuck!  Somewhere beyond the cottonwood grove surrounding Moccasin Spring a galloping horse was coming in.  A moment later horse and rider shot past the tail of the cottonwood grove, and bore down on the house.

“Marie!” exclaimed Racey.

“And riding one of my hosses,” observed Mr. Saltoun.

At that instant Marie caught sight of the three men and swerved her mount toward them.

“They said at the Bar S you was here,” panted the lookout, pulling up in front of Racey Dawson.  “So I borrowed a fresh hoss and kep’ on.  Somethin’s happened in Farewell, Racey.  Swing Tunstall’s shot.”

“Downed?” Racey did not usually jump at conclusions, but Swing Tunstall was his friend.

Marie shook her tousled head.  “Nicked—­shoulder and leg.  But it ain’t their fault he wasn’t rubbed out.”

“Who’s responsible?” demanded Racey.

“Doc Coffin.”

“You said ’their’.”

“Honey Hoke bumped into Swing just as he went after his gun, so Swing couldn’t get his gun out a-tall.  Swing said Honey grabbed his wrist, but Peaches Austin and Punch-the-breeze Thompson was on the other side in the way so none of the boys seen what happened to Swing exactly till after it had.”

“Austin, Thompson, Hoke, and Coffin,” said Racey.  “What began the fuss?”

“Doc Coffin upset a glass of whiskey over Swing’s arm, and then cussed him for getting his arm in the way.”

“And Swing called him a liar, huh?”

“And a ——­ one, too,” elaborated Marie.

“Put-up job.”  Gruffly Mr. Saltoun gave his opinion.

“Shore.”  Tom Loudon nodded gravely.

“Where are those four men now?” Racey asked, quietly, looking at Marie.

“They were in the Starlight when I left town—­and they weren’t drinkin’.”

“No, they wouldn’t be.”

“And the sheriff and Kansas went to Dogville this morning, and the marshal is sick.  I thought you ought to know.  My Gawd, I thought you’d hear the news from somebody else before I got here and go bustin’ in regardless, and—­”

“I guess I’ll go in all right,” he told her with a slight smile, “but it won’t be regardless.”