"An' I'll be there to watch. I'll be there to see fair play, don't you
never doubt it, Mac. Why didn't I never go with you before? Why, Jerry
never done anything to touch this! But be careful, Mac. Don't make no
slip up to-night. If they's trouble--I ain't a fighting man, Mac. I
ain't no ways built for it."
"Shut your mouth," said Mac Strann bluntly. "I need quiet now."
For they were now close to the house. Mac Strann brought his horse to a
jog trot and cast a semi-circle skirting the house and bringing him
behind the barns. Here he retreated to a little jutting point of land
from behind which the house was invisible, and there dismounted.
Haw-Haw Langley followed example reluctantly. He complained: "I ain't
never heard before of a man leavin' his hoss behind him! It ain't right
and it ain't policy."
His leader, however, paid no attention to this grumbling. He skirted
back behind the barns, walking with a speed which extended even the long
legs of Haw-Haw Langley. Most of the stock was turned out in the
corrals. Now and then a horse stamped, or a bull snorted from the fenced
enclosures, but from the barns they heard not a sound. Now Mac Strann
paused. They had reached the largest of the barns, a long, low
structure.
"This here," said Mac Strann, "is where that hoss must be. They wouldn't
run a hoss like that with others. They'd keep him in a big stall by
himself. We'll try this one, Haw-Haw.
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