"He's probably at Tascosa or Mobeetie. I haven't seen him since you have."
"Didn't he send you to the Dinsmores after me?"
"Why, no."
Arthur drew a deep breath of relief. If he had weakened in his story that he was alone and had told the truth, he would have brought ruin upon both himself and his friend.
"You mean you went in there on a pure bluff, knowing how they hated you and what a big chance there was that they would murder you?"
"I took a chance, I reckon. But it looked good to me."
"If I had told them you and I were alone—"
"I figured you wouldn't do that. I had a notion my bluff would stick. They wouldn't think I'd come to them unless I had strong backin'. The bigger the bluff the better the chance of its workin'."
"Unless I had told that there were only two of us."
"That was one of the risks I had to gamble on, but I felt easy in my mind about that. You'll notice one thing if you stay with the Rangers, Art. They can get away with a lot of things they couldn't pull off as private citizens. The law is back of us, and back of the law is the State of Texas. When it comes to a showdown, mighty few citizens want to get us after them good and hard. We always win in the end. The bad-men all know that."