Still,
I'm willing to gamble that if we rode into Fort Walsh and gave ourselves
up, it would only be a matter of a few weeks in the guardhouse for us
before the thing was cleared up."
"Maybe," I responded skeptically. "If that's your belief, why don't you
act accordingly?"
"Because, confound it, that's just where they want to get us," he
declared. "Once we were safely penned, they'll drift, and neither you
nor Lyn Rowan nor the government would ever lay eyes on that bundle of
money again. I have a theory--but what's vastly more important, I think
those fellows can hardly get out of the country with their plunder
without crossing trails with us. It was smooth business to set the dogs
on us. I don't quite _sabe_--well, I do, too. You can probably realize
just how headquarters would take the sort of yarn we'd spin if we dashed
in and told them the truth. But I think we're smart enough to upset
these fellows' calculations. Lord! wouldn't it be a stroke of business
if we could trap that collection of buccaneers? Frankly, that would be
the biggest thing that ever came my way."
"It would be equally a stroke of business if they happen to trap us," I
reminded.
"They won't," he asserted confidently. "We can't afford to let them.
We've inflicted a compound fracture on established law, and until we can
make the outcome justify our actions, we're compelled, in self-defense,
to avoid being caught.
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