“I was gonna say you must be mistaken, Mr. Crawford,” he whined.

Shorty laughed hardily, spat tobacco juice at a knot in the floor, and spoke again.  “Third degree stuff, eh?  It won’t buy you a thing, Crawford.  Miller wasn’t in that hold-up any more’n I—­”

“Let Miller do his own talkin’, Shorty.  He don’t need any lead from you.”

Shorty looked hard at the cattleman with unflinching eyes.  “Don’t get on the peck, Em.  You got no business coverin’ me with that gun.  I know you got reasons a-plenty for tryin’ to bluff us into sayin’ we held up the stage.  But we don’t bluff worth a cent.  See?”

Crawford saw.  He had failed to surprise a confession out of Miller by the narrowest of margins.  If he had had time to get Shorty out of the room before the convict’s appearance, the fellow would have come through.  As it was, he had missed his opportunity.

A head followed by a round barrel body came in cautiously from the lean-to at the rear.

“Everything all right, Mr. Crawford?  Thought I’d drap on down to see if you didn’t need any help.”

“None, thanks, Mr. Thomas,” the cattleman answered dryly.

“Well, you never can tell.”  The prospector nodded genially to Shorty, then spoke again to the man with the rifle.  “Found any clue to the hold-up yet?”

“We’ve found the men who did it,” replied Crawford.

“Knew ’em all the time, I reckon,” scoffed Shorty with a harsh laugh.

Dave drew his chief aside, still keeping a vigilant eye on the prisoners.  “We’ve got to play our hand different.  Shorty is game.  He can’t be bluffed.  But Miller can.  I found out years ago he squeals at physical pain.  We’ll start for home.  After a while we’ll give Shorty a chance to make a getaway.  Then we’ll turn the screws on Miller.”

“All right, Dave.  You run it.  I’ll back yore play,” his friend said.

They disarmed Miller, made him saddle two of the horses in the corral, and took the back trail across the valley to the divide.  It was here they gave Shorty his chance of escape.  Miller was leading the way up the trail, with Crawford, Thomas, Shorty, and Dave in the order named.  Dave rode forward to confer with the owner of the D Bar Lazy R. For three seconds his back was turned to the squat cowpuncher.

Shorty whirled his horse and flung it wildly down the precipitous slope.  Sanders galloped after him, fired his revolver three times, and after a short chase gave up the pursuit.  He rode back to the party on the summit.

Crawford glanced around at the heavy chaparral.  “How about off here a bit, Dave?”

The younger man agreed.  He turned to Miller.  “We’re going to hang you,” he said quietly.

The pasty color of the fat man ebbed till his face seemed entirely bloodless.  “My God!  You wouldn’t do that!” he moaned.

He clung feebly to the horn of his saddle as Sanders led the horse into the brush.  He whimpered, snuffling an appeal for mercy repeated over and over.  The party had not left the road a hundred yards behind when a man jogged past on his way into the valley.  He did not see them, nor did they see him.