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"That's how it was, Steve. In as long as it takes to empty a

Winchester, we were every one of us guilty of a murder we'd each

have given a laig to have stopped. We were all in it, all tied

together, because we had broke the law to go raiding in the first

place. Technically, the man that emptied that rifle wasn't any

more guilty than us poor wretches that stood frozen there while

he did it. Put it that we might shave the gallows, even then the

penitentiary would bury us. There was only one thing to do. We

agreed to stand together, and keep mum."

"Is that why you're telling me, Alec?" Fraser smiled.

"We ain't telling you, not legally," the cow-puncher answered

coolly. "If you was ever to say we had, Dick and me would deny

it. But we ain't worrying any about you telling it. You're a

clam, and we know it. No, we're telling you, son, because we want

you to know about how it was. The boys didn't ride out to do

murder. They rode out simply to drive the sheep off their range."