The Wolf’s eyes were smiling as he gazed at the man he read like an open book. There was no fear in him. But there was something in his smiling gaze that Pideau could not face.
The half-breed’s eyes fell away and sought refuge in the cattle ahead of them.
The boy permitted his pony to drop back slightly, to a position of advantage. The beast’s nose was abreast of the withers of Pideau’s horse.
“I guess we need to square things up,” the Wolf went on, as Pideau attempted no verbal response. “Just cut murder right out till we’re through talkin’. Maybe you’ll see sense then. Since ever we quit back there you bin worried thinkin’ I knew the thing you’ve done. You bin guessin’ you couldn’t stand for it. You’re scared I’ll hold you up—when it suits me.”
Pideau still remained watching the cattle.
“I’m not out to hold you up, Pideau,” the boy went on quietly. “We ain’t friendly. We never bin. Maybe it’ll always be that way. It don’t matter. You gave me shelter when I couldn’t find it for myself. You handed me food, too, when there wasn’t a deal lying around for me. Well, I haven’t learned a deal. But ther’s jest one thing I have got back of my head. I’d hate worse than death to hurt the feller that did those things for me when I couldn’t do ’em for myself. If you get that you’ll see it’s crazy to kill the feller that can help you now, and is willing to. Just as crazy as killing those two police boys.”
Pideau experienced a soothing of his murderous spirit as he listened to the raucous, confident tones. His hate was unabated. But his fear knew a relief that had seemed well-nigh impossible. A curious calm spread through his senses and eased his tension.
“I had to kill ’em,” he growled morosely. “It was that or the penitentiary. A fool ’ud see it.”
“Was it?” The boy’s smile was full of shrewdness. “They’d trailed you, but they hadn’t got you. They’d never have got you in these hills. They’d have got the cattle. But that wouldn’t have hurt a thing. No. It was foolish to kill. Now you’ll get no more cattle. There’ll be a thousand police to say so. They’ll watch for you day an’ night. They’ll never quit your trail. There’s a big bunch of cattle stole from boys who know they’ve lost ’em. And the police know that two men on that station are missing. You’ve got to quit cattle now, because you killed those boys. It was foolish.”
There was no offence in the Wolf’s manner. Only argument. And somehow the argument took hold of the cattle thief, and made him want to hear more.