So he had to abandon the horse--a circumstance that only such sore straits could have driven him to.

Then he went slipping swiftly through the narrow aisles.
He had not gotten under cover any too soon.

For he heard his pursuers piling over the bluff, loud-voiced, confident, brutal.

They crashed into the willows.
"Hi, Sid! Heah's your hoss!" called one, evidently to the man Duane had forced into a trade.
"Say, if you locoed gents'll hold up a little I'll tell you somethin'," replied a voice from the bluff.
"Come on, Sid! We got him corralled," said the first speaker.
"Wal, mebbe, an' if you hev it's liable to be damn hot.

THET FELLER WAS BUCK DUANE!" Absolute silence followed that statement.