The man regarded her gravely: "Things like that works themselves out. If there ain't any 'we', there won't be any cabin—so there's nothin' to worry about."
"Did you catch the horse-thieves?"
Vil Holland's face clouded. "Part of 'em. Not the main ones, though."
Patty shuddered. "I saw one of them lying back there by the trail. It was horrible."
"Yes, an' a couple of more went the same way, further on. We'd rather have got 'em alive, but they'd had their orders, an' they took their medicine. We got the horses, though."
"I suppose you're wondering how I came to be in among those horses?"
"I figured you'd got mixed up in it at Samuelson's, somehow. The boys didn't know nothin' about it—except Pierce—an' he guessed wrong."
Patty laughed. "He accused me of being one of the gang, and even threatened to lock me in his cellar."
"He won't again," announced the man, dryly.
"I rode down there to get him to go for the doctor. Mr. Samuelson was worse, and there was no one else to go. And when I started on for town, the horses swept down on me and carried me along with them."