"But how in h— did he git hold of it?"
"Jumped in the river an' saved its life, so the squaw said."
"The devil! Ye don't say so! But how did he happen to be there jist in the nick of time?"
"Bah," and Shifty spat contemptuously upon the floor. "How did he happen to be there! How does he happen to be here? How does he happen to be everywhere? Don't ye know he's one of them d—Yellow-legs from Big Glen?"
His companions started at these words, and glanced anxiously toward the door. Shifty gave a sarcastic laugh, drew a pipe from his pocket and stuck it between his teeth.
"Scart are ye?" he asked. "I thought y'd scent 'im five miles off."
"To tell ye the truth," Pete replied, "we didn't like the looks of 'im from the first, so we came back here to talk it over. Thought mebbe he'd tell Old Dan if left alone. So we listened."
"An' what did ye learn?"
"Nuthin', only we concluded he wasn't a Yellow-leg."
"How's that?"