“No.”

“I was told of a fellow who chipped four dollars thrown into the air at twenty yards.”

“That’s a lie.”

“The man who talked to me had a nicked dollar to prove his yarn.”

“The devil he did!”

“And after the shooting this chap got into a fight with a tall man twice his size and fairly mopped up the floor with him.  They say it wasn’t a nice thing to watch.  He is a frail man, but when the fight started he turned into a tiger.”

“Wish I’d seen it.”

“The tall man tallies to a hair with my description of Silent.”

“You’re wrong.  I know what Silent can do with his hands.  No one could beat him up.  What’s the name of the other?”

“Barry.  Whistling Dan Barry.”

Calder hesitated.

“Right or wrong, I’d like to have this Barry with me.  So long.”

He was gone as he had come, with a nod and a flash of the keen, black eyes.  Lee Hardy stared at the door for some moments, and then went outside.  The warm light of the sun had never been more welcome to him.  Under that cheering influence he began to feel that with Tex Calder behind him he could safely defy the world.

His confidence received a shock that afternoon when a heavy step crossed the outside room, and his door opening without a preliminary knock, he looked up into the solemn eyes of Jim Silent.  The outlaw shook his head when Hardy offered him a chair.

“What’s the main idea of them two new men out in your front room, Lee?” he asked.

“Two cowpunchers that was down on their luck.  I got to stand in with the boys now and then.”

“I s’pose so.  Shorty Rhinehart in here to see you, Lee?”

“Yep.”

“You told him that the town was gettin’ pretty hot.”

“It is.”

“You said you had no dope on when that delayed shipment was comin’ through?”

Hardy made lightning calculations.  A half truth would be the best way out.

“I’ve just got the word you want.  It come this morning.”

Silent’s expression changed and he leaned a little closer.

“It’s the nineteenth.  Train number 89.  Savvy?  Seven o’clock at Elkhead!”

“How much?  Same bunch of coin?”

“Fifty thousand!”

“That’s ten more.”

“Yep.  A new shipment rolled in with the old one.  No objections?”

Silent grinned.

“Any other news, Lee?”

“Shorty told you about Tex Calder?”

“He did.  Seen him around here?”

The slightest fraction of a second in hesitation.

“No.”

“Was that the straight dope you give Shorty?”

“Straighter’n hell.  They’re beginnin’ to talk, but I guess I was jest sort of panicky when I talked with Shorty.”

“This Tex Calder——­”

“What about him?” This with a trace of suspicion.

“He’s got a long record.”