“Enright, a New York lawyer.”

“That’s it; well I could make out the three of yer, but I never got sight of the other buck—­his name was Beaton, wasn’t it?—­till he came out from behind the curtain and gripped yer.  It was a put-up job all right, an’ maybe I ought to have hustled round to the door an’ took a hand.  But I don’t aim to mix up in no scrimmage as long as both sides has got a fair show.  Course thar was three ag’in’ one, but arter you kicked the wind out o’ the lawyer, the odds wasn’t so bad, an’ I sorter hated to lose out seeing how the scrap came out.  Holy smoke! but you sure put up some dandy fight, Jim.  I ain’t seen nuthin’ better since I struck this yere camp.  You had them two guys licked to a frazzle, when that Enright come back to life agin, an’ crawled out on the floor an’ picked up your gun.  The fust thing I knew he had it, an’ the next thing I knew he’d pulled the trigger.  He meant it fer you, but Beaton got it.”

“It was Enright then who fired the shot?”

“Sure it was Enright; I saw him, but that didn’t cut any ice after I got inside.  Do you see?  The whole crowd was Lacy’s gang; they’d do whatever he said.  It was your gun that had the discharged cartridge; Bill was yellin’ that you fired it, and Enright, o’ course, would have backed him up to save his own neck.  You was in a fight with the feller what was shot.  See!  It was a mighty ugly fix, an’ nobody in that outfit would ‘a’ listened to me.  It struck me, son, that Lacy was all-fired anxious to get rid of you—­he saw a chance, and jumped for it.  What was the row about—­your mine?”

“Partly, but mostly another affair.  The best thing I can do is tell you about it.  What’s going on up there?”

He pointed up the stream, and Brennan shaded his eyes to look, although careful to keep well under cover, confident that any movement would be observed from the shore.  He gazed for some time before he seemed entirely satisfied.

“A bunch of the boys crossin’ the old ford,” he said quietly.  “Goin’ to picket the other bank, I reckon.  There’s likely to be some more comin’ down the opposite way from the bridge.  That’s Lacy’s idea—­to starve us out.”

“They seem quiet enough.”

“There won’t be any more fightin’ unless we try to get away, I reckon.  They know we are armed and can shoot.  You better keep down, though, Jim, for they’re sure a watchin’ us all right, an’ all Lacy cares about is to put you out o’ the way.  He’d just as soon do it with a bullet as a rope.  Go on with your story.”

Westcott told it simply, but in full detail, beginning with the discovery of ore in his mine, and including his telegram to Fred Cavendish; the discovery of what was supposed to be the dead body of the latter in the Waldron Apartments, New York; the investigations into the mystery of his death by Willis and Miss Donovan, and the despatching of Miss Donovan to Haskell to intercept Enright’s party; the arrival of the latter and the events, so far as he understood them, leading up to the forcible abduction of the girl.