“Fust time ever I see Randal fleshed. Is there truth in that yarn, after all?”
The boys charged out, sweeping Blake and a lantern with them. A half-dozen seized such horses and gear as he owned; more raided Phelan’s stables and Conroy’s at the corner. Jingle of steel, hoof clatter, and the volleys of chaff brought the township to stare and ask questions. A white face showed in a stray lantern-flash. Douglas gripped the shoulder below it, and said:
“Not you, Jimmie. You don’t know the country.”
“They brought me, Ted. They said I was one o’ you now———”
“You go back in the drays with Moody—take that scared look off before you show up at Mains.”
Douglas cast on his gear, and wheeled out, two lines quick and deep on his forehead. For that instinct beyond reason which joins or divides men apart from their understanding had knitted him to a mate weak in body and spirit, and he knew the unbending code of Scannell’s men.
Lou came over the fence, his feet seeking the stirrups. He had borrowed a half-broken colt from Jackson, and Jackson hobbled after, babbling uncared-for warnings.
He flung the roll-call along as he raced up where the street clanged like rock to the hoofs:
