GOING EAST Within fifteen minutes after he had left Ruth Hamlin with Slade at the side door of the Wolf, Warden had sent a telegram to Lawler, at the capital, informing him that the girl might be found at the brothel with the outlaw.

He had signed no name to the telegram, but that did not lessen the venomous satisfaction he felt over sending it.
It had been nearly eleven o'clock when Warden sent the wire and allowing for some minutes of waste time before the message could be delivered, and the space of time that must elapse before Lawler could reach Willets--even if he came on a special train--he knew that Lawler could not arrive before the early hours of the morning.
Lawler, Warden knew, would be in a killing mood when he reached Willets.
And he knew, also, that Slade would be waiting for Lawler, and that he would kill Lawler on sight.
Slade would have to kill Lawler, for Lawler, as governor, had the power to be revenged upon the outlaw for the abduction of Ruth; and Slade would know that Lawler would use that power to the limit.

If Slade killed Lawler, that would be another matter.

The outlaw would have to hide, to evade the clutches of the law.

But hiding was not more than Slade had been accustomed to for years, and that necessity would work no hardship upon him.
That was Warden's reasoning.