“My friends are not welcome, then?” Mack smiled. “But why blame me, if I’m popular?”
Both the prisoner and the cattle thieves seemed to be in the best of humor. But both sides were watching each other very closely.
“I reckon,” said one of the other men, “the Double U and the Double X will not miss what we want. We need it much more than they do.”
“Well, now,” and Mack smiled, “I take it that you need that carcass of yours much more than they do. While folks are taking things, we’ll probably take that.”
And so they talked, in the main, quite humorously and good-naturedly. Mack wondered how his friends could come to his help without making the matter of receiving help a matter of extreme danger to him. For these men would blow his brains out at the first sign or even hint of interference from the outside. That would be their game. They had not even bothered to tie him, simply had taken his gun away.
But, knowing Smiles as he did, he knew he could count on him. He knew that Smiles would figure all these things before he made a move. For his friend was a pastmaster at this kind of game. Of course, there was the possibility that Ted might not have brought the warning to Smiles, but that possibility was quite remote, so Red decided he could count on Ted. The thing for him to do was to be ready and act when the time came.
McGowan now turned to one of the men.
“Better get outside and watch awhile. I don’t expect trouble, but that’s the time it usually comes.” Out of the corner of his eye he watched Red Mack to see if he would give some sign, but the prisoner never changed expression.
So a half hour more passed. The man outside grumbled at being kept there when all his interests were inside. His watch was divided, half his time being spent in listening and watching the men inside.
There was a sudden crashing of underbrush. Almost with the noise a gun was at Mack’s head. Then the call of the sentry. “It’s a horse—reckon it’s Mack’s.” The gun came down.