“I ain’t likely to forget it, am I?” grinned Denver, as he rose.
“You poor boys! I know you are starved. I’ll see about the lunch if one of you will get the I horses round,” Helen broke in. “Only let us hurry and get away from here.”
Ten minutes later they were in the saddle. For the sake of precaution Mac walked two of his captives with them for about a mile before releasing them. Bannister, unable to travel, they left behind.
“We’ll get down out of the hills and then cut acrost to the Meeker ranch,” said McWilliams, after they had ridden forward a few miles. “I’ll telephone from there to Slauson’s and have the old man send a boy over to the Lazy D with the good word. We’ll get an early start from Meeker’s and make it home in the afternoon.”
“How did you leave Mr. Bannister?” asked Helen, in a carefully careless voice.
She had held back this question for nearly an hour till Denver, who was guiding the party, had passed out of earshot.
“Left him with two of the boys holding him down. He was plumb anxious to commit suicide by joining the hunt for y’u, but I had other thoughts,” grinned Mac.
She felt herself flushing in the darkness. “We’ve made a great mistake about him, Mac, It’s his cousin of the same name that is the desperado—the man we just left.”
“Yes, that’s what Judd let out before y’u and the King arrived. It made me plumb glad to my gizzard to hear it.”
“I was pleased, too.”