"I beg your pardon, Miss," he said genially.
"Now," said Standing. "About this Mexicali Joe. You go back and tell him for me...."
Winch interrupted quickly, saying:
"No use, Timber. You got to see him. I tell you he's clean crazy to see you; he'll stick on your trail until he finds you. He wants only ten minutes; five would do it."
Lynette was mildly surprised to see Standing so easily persuaded; but she had no way of knowing the relationship of this man and his chief henchman nor how Billy Winch never took it upon himself to suggest unless he knew what he was about.
"All right," said Standing, though he frowned as he spoke. "Go get your man."
Winch jerked his head about and shouted; his long, halloing call pierced clear through the woodland silences.
"Hi, Joe! This way, on the run! Pronto, hombre!"
Joe came almost immediately, mounted on a scrawny mulish-looking horse, breaking an impatient way through the brush. His dark face still carried a frightened, furtive expression which had not been absent from it for a matter of days; not since a handful of raw gold had been spilled from his torn pocket.
"Señor!" he cried ringingly from a distance. "Señor Caballero! I tell you, they keel me! I got no chances! For sure, they keel me, robbers!"