“Morris,” said Haines earnestly, “if I’m taken to Elkhead it’ll be simply a matter of lynching.  You know the crowd in that town.”

“Right—­right,” said Morris, eagerly picking up the word.  “It’d be plain lynchin’—­murder—­”

Dan broke in:  “Haines, step over here behind me!”

For one instant Haines hesitated, and then obeyed silently.

“This is contempt of the law and an officer of the law,” said Morris.  “An” I’ll see that you get fined so that—­”

“Better cut it short there, sheriff,” said one of the men.  “I wouldn’t go callin’ the attention of folks to the way Jim Silent walked into your own house an’ made his getaway without you tryin’ to raise a hand.  Law or no law, I’m with this stranger.”

“Me too,” said another; “any man who can fan a gun like him don’t need no law.”

The sheriff saw that the tide of opinion had set strongly against him and abandoned his position with speed if not with grace.  Dan ordered Haines to walk before him outside the house.  They faced each other in the dim moonlight.

“I’ve got one question to ask you,” he said.

“Make it short,” said Haines calmly.  “I’ve got to do my talking before the lynching crowd.”

“You can answer it in one word.  Does Kate Cumberland—­what is she to you?”

Lee Haines set his teeth.

“All the world,” he said.

Even in the dim light he saw the yellow glow of Dan’s eyes and he felt as if a wolf stood there trembling with eagerness to leap at his throat.

“An’ what are you to her?”

“No more than the dirt under her feet!”

“Haines, you lie!”

“I tell you that if she cared for me as much as she does for the horse she rides on, I’d let the whole world know if I had to die for it the next moment.”

Truth has a ring of its own.

“Haines, if I could hear that from her own lips, I’d let you go free.  If you’ll show me the way to Kate, I’ll set you loose the minute I see her.”

“I can’t do it.  I’ve given my faith to Silent and his men.  Where she is, they are.”

“Haines, that means death for you.”

“I know it.”

Another plan had come to Dan as they talked.  He took Haines inside again and coming out once more, whistled for Bart.  The wolf appeared as if by magic through the dark.  He took out Kate’s glove, which the wolf had brought to him in the willows, and allowed him to smell it.  Bart whined eagerly.  If he had that glove he would range the hills until he found its owner, directed to her by that strange instinct of the wild things.  If Kate still loved him the glove would be more eloquent than a thousand messages.  And if she managed to escape, the wolf would guide her back to his master.

He sat on his heels, caught the wolf on either side of the shaggy head, and stared into the glow of the yellow green eyes.  It was as if the man were speaking to the wolf.