"What was it, then?" asked Ann, steadily.
"If Andrew DOES come through alive he'll have blood on his hands," returned Jean, with passion. "He can't come through without it. . . .
I've begun to feel what it means to have killed my fellow men. . . .
An' I'd rather your husband an' the father of your children never felt that."
Colmor did not take Jean as subtly as Ann did. She shrunk a little.
Her dark eyes dilated. But Colmor showed nothing of her spiritual reaction. He was young. He had wild blood. He was loyal to the Isbels.
"Jean, never worry about my conscience," he said, with a keen look.
"Nothin' would tickle me any more than to get a shot at every damn one of the Jorths."
That established Colmor's status in regard to the Jorth-Isbel feud.
Jean had no more to say. He respected Ann's friend and felt poignant sorrow for Ann.
Gaston Isbel called for meat and drink to be set on the table for his guests. When his wishes had been complied with the women took the children into the adjoining cabin and shut the door.
"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 more vividly he presented his participation in the first fight of the feud the more strongly he would bind these friends to the Isbel cause. So he talked for an hour, beginning with his meeting with Colter up on the Rim and ending with 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 more of them."
Blue nodded his lean, eagle-like head and sat thoughtfully, as if not convinced of anything save Jean's prowess. After a moment Blue spoke again.
"Then, goin' back to Jean's tellin' aboot trackin' rustled Cattle, I've got this to say. I've long suspected thet somebody livin' right 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'm figgerin' is thet some so-called honest man in our settlement has been makin' crooked deals.
Blue was a man of deeds rather than words, and so much strong speech 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 element in the condition of cattle dealing.
Suddenly Jean caught a vague flash of thought, as if he had intercepted the thought of another's mind, and he wondered--could his brother Bill know anything about this crooked work alluded to by Blue? Dismissing the conjecture, Jean listened earnestly.
"An' if it's true it shore makes this difference--we cain't blame all the rustlin' on to Jorth," concluded Blue.
"Wal, it's not true," declared Gaston Isbel, roughly. "Jorth an' his Hash Knife Gang are at the bottom of all the rustlin' in the valley for years back. An' they've got to be wiped out!"
"Isbel, I reckon we'd all feel better if we talk straight, replied Blue, coolly. "I'm heah to stand by the Isbels. An' y'u know what thet means.
