I recognised the voice of a cowboy whom we had employed: a man known in the foothills as Cock-a-whoop Charlie.
"He's here," Ajax answered quietly.
A tall, gaunt Missourian, also well known to us as a daring bull- puncher, laughed derisively.
"Here--is he? Wal, we want him, but we don't want no fuss with you, boys. Yer--white, but he's yaller, and he must go."
"He is going," said Ajax. "He's going fast."
"How's that?"
"Come in," retorted my brother impatiently. "It's cold out there and dark. You're not scared of two unarmed men--are you?"
They filed into the house, looking very sheepish.
"I'm glad you've come, even at this late hour," said Ajax, "for I want to have a quiet word with you."
The psychological characteristics of a crowd are receiving attention at the hands of a French philosopher. M. Gustave Le Bon tells us that the crowd is always intellectually inferior to the isolated individual of average brains.