Sautee rose and extended his hand with an affable smile. “Will you come to breakfast with me, Mr. Rathburn?”

Rathburn took the hand with a curious side glance at Mannix. “I’m powerful hungry,” he confessed; “an’ I don’t reckon I’d be showing the best of manners if I balked at havin’ breakfast with the man that got me out of jail.”

“Quite right,” admitted Sautee, winking at the deputy. “Well, perhaps I have my reasons. All right, Rathburn, let’s be going.”

They walked out of the jail, and as they progressed up the street they were the cynosure of many wondering pairs of eyes; for the report had spread that the stranger who had been jailed was the bandit who had made away with the Dixie Queen pay-roll on several occasions, and that he was a gun fighter and a killer.

They entered a restaurant just below the hotel, and Sautee led the way to a booth where they were assured comparative privacy.

“Ham an’ eggs,” said Rathburn shortly when the waiter entered.

Sautee smiled again. He was covertly inspecting the man across the table from him and evidently what he saw caused him to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion.

He gave his order with a nod and a mild flourish of the hand, indicating that he would take the same.

“Oh––waiter,” called Rathburn. “Four eggs with mine.”

Sautee laughed. It was a peculiar laugh in that it seemed to convey little mirth. It was perfunctory.

He gazed at Rathburn quizzically. “They tell me you’re a gunman,” he said in a low voice.

Rathburn’s brows shot up. “They? Who’s they?”

Sautee waved a hand impatiently. “I am the manager of the Dixie Queen. I have been around a bit, and I have eyes. I can see. I know the signals. I witnessed the play in the Red Feather last night.”

“That ain’t a bad name for the place,” Rathburn mused.

“Just what do you suppose was my object in getting you out of jail?” Sautee asked seriously, leaning over the table and looking at Rathburn searchingly. “You said last night you were a good guesser.”

“But I didn’t say I was good at riddles,” drawled Rathburn.

Sautee leaned back. For a moment there was a gleam of admiration in his eyes. Then they narrowed slightly.

“The Dixie Queen has been robbed four times within the last year,” he said soberly. “That represents considerable money. Yesterday I resorted to a ruse and sent the money up with a truck driver, but whoever is doing this thing must have got wise somehow, for the truck driver was held up, as you know, and the money taken.”

“Why not put an armed guard on that truck?” asked Rathburn with a yawn.

“I had full confidence in that ruse, and I knew the man who drove the truck could be trusted. Besides, he didn’t know what was inside the package.”

“How much did they get?” asked Rathburn sharply.

“Twenty-two thousand eight hundred and seventy dollars in cash.”

Rathburn stared at the mine manager and whistled softly. “What’s the sense in sending it up there at all?” he asked suddenly. “Why not pay off down here in town?”

Sautee sighed with an air of resignation. “That’s been argued several times,” he complained. “The men demand their pay in cash. They want it at the mine, for more than half of them have refused to come down here for it. It is twenty-nine miles up there to the mine, and it would take all the trucks we’ve got and two days to bring them down here and take them back. Besides, if we got them down here it would be a week before we could get half of them back up there and at work again.”

“But why won’t they take checks?” Rathburn demanded.

“It would be the same proposition,” Sautee explained. “There is a little village up there––pool room, soft-drink parlor, lunch room, store, and all that––and the men, or a large number of them, would want their checks cashed to make purchases and for spending money, and the cash would have to be transported so the business places could cash the checks. Then, there’s another reason. All the mines over on this side of the mountains, clear down into the desert, have always paid in cash. This is an old district, and the matter of getting paid in cash has become a tradition. That’s what the company is up against. We can refuse to do it, but all the other mines do it, and the Dixie Queen would soon have the reputation of being the only mine in the district that didn’t pay in cash. 124 The tradition is handed down from the old days when men were paid in gold. There was a time when a miner wouldn’t take paper money in this country!”

The waiter entered with the breakfast dishes and they began to eat.

“Your mine owned by a stock company?” Rathburn inquired.

“Certainly,” replied Sautee. “All the mines here are. What mine isn’t?”

Rathburn ignored the question. “Stockholders live aroun’ here?” he asked, between mouthfuls.

“Oh––no, that is, not many,” replied Sautee with a quick glance at his questioner. “This district is pretty well worked out. Most of our stockholders live in the Middle West and the East.” He winked at Rathburn.

“Any other mines been robbed?” Rathburn persisted.

“No, that’s the funny part of it. Still––no, it isn’t funny. We’re working on the largest scale, and our pay-roll is, naturally, the largest. It furnishes the biggest incentive. In addition, the Dixie Queen is the farthest out from town, and there are many excellent spots for a holdup between town and the mine. Oh, don’t look skeptical. I’ve tried trusted messengers by roundabout trails, and guards and all that. They even held up a convoy on one occasion. I’ve set traps. I’ve done everything. But now I’ve a new idea, and I believe it’ll work.”

He finished his breakfast and stared steadily at Rathburn who didn’t look up, but leisurely drank a second cup of coffee. Sautee noted the slim, tapered right hand of the man across the table from him, the clear, gray eyes, the unmistakable poise of a man who is absolutely and utterly confident 125 and sure of himself. The mine manager’s eyes glowed eagerly.

“Yes?” asked Rathburn calmly.

“I’m going to hire, or, rather, I’m going to try to hire a man I believe is just as tough, just as clever, just as quick with his gun as the men who’ve been robbing the Dixie Queen. I’m going to hire him to carry the money to the mine!”

“So that’s why you got me out of jail,” said Rathburn, drawing the inevitable tobacco and papers from his shirt pocket.

“Yes!” whispered Sautee eagerly. “I want you for the job!”

“You ain’t forgetting that I was suspected of that last job, are you? That’s why I went to jail, I reckon.”

“You didn’t have to go to jail unless you wanted to. You didn’t have to stop in this town and invite arrest. Mannix let you go up there yesterday because he felt sure he could get you when he wanted you again, and he figured you’d make some break that would give him a clew to your pals, if you had any. You went to jail because you knew he didn’t have anything on you.”

Sautee grinned in triumph.

“How do you know I won’t beat it with the money?” asked Rathburn.

“I don’t,” said Sautee quickly. “But I’m taking a chance on it that you won’t. I don’t care who you are, what you are now, or what you’ve been; I don’t care if you’re an outlaw! I figure, Rathburn, that if I come out square and trust you with this mission and depend upon you to carry it out, that you’ll play square with me. That’s what I’m banking on––your own sense of squareness. You’ve got it, for I can see it in your eyes.”

“Who’s Carlisle?” Rathburn asked dryly.

Sautee frowned. “He’s a––well, I guess you’d call him a sort of adventurer. I knew him down in Arizona. He follows the camps when they’re good, and this one happens to be good right now, for we’re improving the property. That’s how he happened to come up here about a year ago. Then, when the first robbery occurred, I engaged him as a sort of special agent. He didn’t make any progress, so I let him go. Since then he’s been out and in, gambling, prospecting, anything––he’s a fast man with his gun, and he has some claims here which he is developing on a small scale and trying to sell.”

Rathburn nodded but made no comment.

“Will you take the job?” Sautee asked anxiously.

“What do you want me to do?”

“I want you to carry a sum of money to the mine. I’m not going to tell you how much, but it will be considerable. The money which was stolen yesterday was for the pay-off to-day. I’ve got to get the cash for the men up there quick. They all know about the holdup, so there’s no grumbling––yet. But there will be if they don’t have their money pretty quick. We want to pay off to-morrow. I could go with a guard, but to tell you the truth, Rathburn, it’s got to a point where I can’t trust a soul.”

“Why not Mannix?” asked Rathburn sharply.

Sautee shook his head; his beady, black eyes glowed, and he stroked his chin.

“There’s another sorrowful point,” he explained. “I tell you we’re up against it here, Rathburn. The Dixie Queen people and most of the other mines are fighting the present county administration as a matter of policy. They want certain changes, and––well, keep this to yourself––privileges. Mannix has been instructed by the sheriff of this county that he 127 is not here to act as a guard for the Dixie Queen. See?”

Rathburn frowned and built another cigarette.

“If you’ll carry this package of money up to the Dixie Queen for me, Rathburn, I’ll pay you five hundred dollars. Then, if you want to stay and act as our messenger right along, we’ll make a deal. But I’d like to have you do this this time––make this one trip, anyway, I mean. They may try to stop you. If they do I don’t believe they can get away with it. I’m banking on your ability to get through, and I think the proposition will appeal to you in a sporting way if for no other reason. Will you do it?” Sautee’s eyes were eager.

“Yes,” said Rathburn shortly, tossing away his cigarette.

Sautee held out his hand. “Go to the hotel and engage a room,” he instructed. “Be in your room at nine o’clock to-night. Do not tell any one of our deal. I’ll get your room number from the register. I’ll bring the package of money to you between nine o’clock and midnight. Now, Rathburn, maybe I’m mistaken in you; but I go a whole lot by what I see in a man’s eyes. You may have a hard record, but I’m staking my faith in men on you!”

“I’ll be there,” Rathburn promised.

He left Sautee at the entrance to the restaurant and strolled around the hotel barn to see that his horse was being taken care of properly. He found that the barn man was indeed looking after the dun in excellent shape. Rathburn spent a short time with his mount, petting him and rubbing his glossy coat with his hands. Then he took his slicker pack and started for the hotel.

As he reached the street he saw a girl on a horse talking with a man on the sidewalk. The girl 128 was leaning over, and the man evidently was delivering a harangue. He was gesticulating wildly, and Rathburn could see that the girl was cowering. He paused on the hotel porch as the man stepped away from the horse and looked his way. He recognized Carlisle.

Then the girl rode down the street and Rathburn started with surprise as he saw she was the girl from the cabin up the road who had directed him to town the day before. He remembered the two objects he had picked up in the road after the holdup and felt in his pocket to make sure they were there. Then he entered the hotel.

“Have you a room?” he asked the clerk pleasantly.

“Yes. More rooms than anything else to-day since the Sunday crowd’s gone.”

Rathburn wrote his name upon the register.