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"Hah! Wal, we can eat an' talk now"

First the newcomers wanted to hear particulars of what had happened Blaisdell had told all he knew and had seen, but that was not sufficient They plied Gaston Isbel with questions Laboriously and ponderously he rehearsed the experiences of the fight at the ranch, according to his impressions Bill Isbel was exhorted to talk, but he had of late manifested a sullen and taciturn disposition In spite of Jean's vigilance Bill had continued to imbibe red liquor Then Jean was called upon to relate all he had seen and done It had been Jean's intention to keep his mouth shut, first for his own sake and, secondly, because he did not like to talk of his deeds But when thus appealed to by these somber-faced, intent-eyed men he divined that the more carefully he described the cruelty and baseness of their enemies, and the ht of the feud the ly he would bind these friends to the Isbel cause So he talked for an hour, beginning with hiswith an account of his killing Greaves His listeners sat through this long narrative with unabated interest and at the close they were leaning forward, breathless and tense

"Ah! So Greaves got his desserts at last," exclaimed Gordon

All the men around the table made comments, and the last, from Blue, was the one that struck Jean forcibly

"Shore thet was a strange an' a hell of a way to kill Greaves Why'd you do thet, Jean?"

"I told you I wanted to avoid noise an' I hoped to get le-like head and sat thoughtfully, as if not convinced of anything save Jean's prowess After a oin' back to Jean's tellin' aboot trackin' rustled Cattle, I've got this to say I've long suspected thet soht heah in the valley has been drivin' off cattle an' dealin' with rustlers An' now I'm shore of it"

This speech did not elicit the amaze from Gaston Isbel that Jean expected it would

"You mean Greaves or some of his friends?"

"No They wasn't none of them in the cattle business, like we are Shore we all knowed Greaves was crooked But what I'erin' is thet some so-called honest man in our settlement has been makin' crooked deals"

Blue was aspeech from him, whom everybody knew to be remarkably reliable and keen, made a profound impression upon most of the Isbel faction But, to Jean's surprise, his father did not rave It was Blaisdell who supplied the rage and invective Bill Isbel, also, was strangely indifferent to this new eleht a vague flash of thought, as if he had intercepted the thought of another'sabout this crooked work alluded to by Blue? Dis the conjecture, Jean listened earnestly