“That isn’t my responsibility, but speaking merely as a private citizen, I should say, No.”

“What would you do with him then?”

“Why not take him up to your house?”

“Wouldn’t be safe a minute, or in any other house in town.”

“Then get out of town with him.”

“It can’t be done.  I’m watched.”

Hilliard shrugged.

The ranger’s keen eyes went from one to another.  He saw that what the lawyer needed was some personal interest to convert him into a partisan.  From his pocket he drew another letter and some papers.

“If you doubt that I am Lieutenant Fraser you can wire my captain at Dallas.  This is a letter of congratulation to me from the Governor of Texas for my work in the Chacon case.  Here’s my railroad ticket, and my lodge receipt.  You gentlemen are the officers in charge.  I hold you personally responsible for my safety—­ for the safety of a man whose name, by chance, is now known all over this country.”

This was a new phase of the situation, and it went home to the lawyer’s mind at once.  He had been brought into the case willy nilly, and he would be blamed for anything that happened to this young Texan, whose deeds had recently been exploited broadcast in the papers.  He stood for an instant in frowning thought, and as he did so a clause in the letter from the Governor of Texas caught and held his eye.

  which I regard as the ablest, most daring, and, at the same time,
  the most difficult and most successful piece of secret service that
  has come to my knowledge....

Suddenly, Hilliard saw the way out—­ a way that appealed to him none the less because it would also serve his own ambitions.

“Neither you nor I have any right to help this gentleman to escape, sheriff.  The law is plain.  He is charged with murder.  We haven’t any right to let our private sympathies run away with us.  But there is one thing we can do.”

“What is that?” the sheriff asked.

“Let him earn his freedom.”

“Earn it!  How?”

“By serving the State in this very matter of the Squaw Creek raid.  As prosecuting attorney, it is in my discretion to accept the service of an accomplice to a crime in fixing the guilt upon the principals.  Before the law, Lieutenant Fraser stands accused of complicity.  We believe him not guilty, but that does not affect the situation.  Let him go up into the Cedar Mountain country and find out the guilty parties in the Squaw Creek raid.”

“And admit my guilt by compromising with you?” the Texan scoffed.

“Not at all.  You need not go publicly.  In point of fact, you couldn’t get out of town alive if it were known.  No, we’ll arrange to let you break jail on condition that you go up into the Lost Canyon district, and run down the murderers of Campeau and Jennings, That gives us an excuse for letting you go.  You see the point—­ don’t you?”