But Urbina shook his head.
"You know he can't cross," Tad explained. "His people would shoot him if he ever went to Mexico."
"Well, he'll be caught if he stays here. You daren't send that damned Ranger on another blind trail. If Adolfo can't go south he'll have to go north."
"Not on your life," affirmed Lewis. "If he runs it'll prove his guilt and look bad for me. I'm the one they're after, and I don't stand any too good, as you know. You got to go through with this, Ed."
"I won't do it," Austin asserted, stubbornly. "I won't be dragged into the thing. You've no business rustling stock, anyhow. You don't have to."
Urbina exhaled a lungful of cigarette smoke and inquired, "You won't help me, eh?"
"No, I won't."
"Very well! If I go to prison you shall go, too. I shall tell all I know and we shall be companions, you and I."
Austin's temper rose at the threat. "Bah!" he cried, contemptuously. "There's nothing against me except running arms, and the embargo is off now. It's a joke, anyhow. Nobody was ever convicted, even when the embargo was in effect. Why, the government winks at anybody who helps the Rebels."
"Oh, that is nothing!" Urbina agreed; "but you would not wish to be called a cattle thief, eh?"