"Who are they?"
"We hope they are gone," Curtis replied, as lightly as he could. "It was the sheriff of Pinon County and a lynching party. I have persuaded one mob to drive away the other. They were less dangerous than they seemed."
"See those heads!" exclaimed Lawson, pointing out several employés who were peering cautiously over roofs and around corners. "Not one has retained his hat," he added. "If the danger sharpens, off will come their shirts and trousers, and those belligerent white men will find themselves contending with six hundred of the best fighters in the world."
"We must temporize," said Curtis. "A single shot now would be disaster." He checked himself there, but Lawson understood as well as he the situation.
Jennie was not yet satisfied. "Has the sheriff come for some one in particular?"
"No, he has no warrant, hasn't even a clew to the murder. He is really at the lead of a lynching party himself, and has no more right to be here than the men he is driving away."
"What ought he to do?" asked Elsie.
"He should go home. It is my business as agent to make the arrest. I have only a half-dozen police, and I dare not attempt to force him and his party to leave the reservation."
"The whole situation is this," explained Lawson. "They've made this inquest the occasion for bringing all the hot-headed fools of the country together, and this is a bluff which they think will intimidate the Indians."
"They wouldn't dare to begin shooting, would they?" asked Elsie.