The return to the bunkhouse then started. When within a striking distance of it, the truck was turned around and, throwing his clutch into reverse, the driver skillfully backed it towards the log house.
Several shots were fired, then there was a silence. Evidently those inside the building were at loss to understand what this peculiar form of attack meant.
Phil knew that his job would be a perilous one, but he knew his duty was to do what he had planned. The barrier was raised up and he slipped to the ground. He felt a measure of safety in the thought that the enemy could see what was going on, and would be unlikely to send spies out, since the men of the posse in the other truck could pick them off if they came out.
Phil raided his radio set for the necessary wire, and fixed the dynamite against the log house. There was only one detonator left, and Phil was not sure it was a good one, but he felt so certain that there would be no need of setting it off that he did not particularly care.
His plan was for the man who bore the flag of truce to promise safe conduct for one man to go and look at the arrangement and then go back and tell the others that it was so. The inspector would be under cover of the rifles of the posse all the time, so would have no chance of wrecking the dynamite mine.
When it was finally in place, he gave the order for the truck to back away slowly, paying out the wire that was to be used to set off the detonator from the battery at the other end if the need really arose.
Garry then volunteered to act as the truce bearer, but here King stepped in.
“I’ve been athinkin’ that you shouldn’t go. Suppose they once got you in the shack; they could send a man out and tell us that they would harm you if you didn’t give orders to git out o’ the way. They know that your pa would rather lose the whole camp than have you harmed. Now with me it would be different; they’d know that I didn’t count for much with you folks, I’d be like one o’ the sheriff’s men only, and could bargain better. Better let me go, only promise if anythin’ happens to me you’ll take care of my baby.”
The crude logic of the old timer appealed to them all except Garry, who felt that he should take the danger, since Phil had done his share in braving bullets to fix the charge.
However, the sheriff decided the matter, and since he was the real head of the posse and the law representative of the county, his decision went.