"He swings!" laconically added Kal.
"Now about Bill. I'm in favor of givin' Bill twenty-four hours to quit the country. If he's caught after that we'll string him up. All in favor hold up their hand. Carried! Curley, you're the feller that got us into this trouble. I'll appoint you to stay on guard, for to see that no one interferes with the course of justice. The prisoner has a couple of minutes with his friends."
The court, jury, and executioners considerately moved away, just out of hearing.
"Boy," said McShay with the shadow of a quiver in his voice; "I can't prevent this."
"I know you can't, McShay; but I thank you just the same for what you've done. You're a square man. I wish I'd known it sooner."
The two men looked each other in the eye for a second and in that silence was born an understanding and a fellowship that each knew to be proof against time, self-interest, and life's vicissitudes.
Bill muttered more to himself than to them: "I'm an old man. It wouldn't have mattered about me."
"Is there anything Bill or I could do for you?" asked McShay, trying hard to keep his voice even and his eye clear.
"Yes; I'm troubled about Wah-na-gi," and Hal's voice shook in spite of himself. "Tell John McCloud I want him to adopt her. He has influential friends in the Indian Office. He's the best man I've ever known. Tell him it's my last request, the only one I have to make. I want him to get control of her and take her away from the Agency. Write my father, Bill, that I'd like the two of them to have this ranch. And tell the governor I took my medicine like a gentleman's son. Don't forget about Wah-na-gi."
"She shan't want a friend while me or Bill lives; ain't that right, Bill?"