“I hain't any secrets in my life!” shouted Gideon, defiantly, as if he proposed to anticipate and discount any allegations that his visitors might produce.
“Ye don't refuse to let me talk a matter of business over with ye in private, do ye, Gideon?”
“Colonel Ward,” said Parker, stepping forward, “your brother is ashamed to show you up before these men.”
“Here, Connick, Hackett, any of you! Seize that runaway, and throw him into the wangan till I get ready to attend to him!” commanded Ward.
The men did not move.
“Do as I tell ye!” bawled the colonel. “Twenty dollars to the men—fifty dollars to the men who ketch an' tie him for me!”
Several rough-looking fellows came elbowing forward, tempted by the reward. Parker raised his gun, but Connick was even quicker. The giant seized an ax, and shouted:
“Keep back, all of ye! There's goin' to be fair play here to-night, an' it's Dan Connick says so!”
“Connick,” Gideon's command was almost a scream, “don't you interfere in what's none o' your business!”
“It's my business when a square man don't get his rights,” Connick cried, with fully as much energy as the colonel, “and that chap is a man, for he licked me clean and honest!”