"Maybe a drink of water would help them lacerated pipes of yourn," he
suggested, "an' besides it's dark enough so you can start supper
a-goin'."

"But," said Endicott, "won't that get the boys all into serious trouble
for aiding and abetting a prisoner to escape? Accessories after the
fact, is what the law calls them."

"Oh Lord," groaned the Texan inwardly. "If I can steer through all
this without ridin' into my own loop, I'll be some liar. This on top
of what I told 'em in Wolf River, an' since, an' about Purdy's
funeral--I dastn't bog down, now!"

"No," he answered, as he lighted another cigarette. "There comes in
your politics again. You see, there was twenty-some-odd of us--an'
none friendless. Take twenty-odd votes an' multiply 'em by the number
of friends each has got--an' I reckon ten head of friends apiece
wouldn't overshoot the figure--an' you've got between two hundred an'
three hundred votes--which is a winnin' majority for any candidate
among 'em. Knowin' this, they wink at the jail delivery an' cinch
those votes. But, as I said before, hangin' is always a popular
measure, an' as they want credit for yourn, they start all the deputies
they got out on a still-hunt for you, judgin' it not to be hard to find
a pilgrim wanderin' about at large. An' this party I met up with was
one of 'em."

"Did he suspect that we were with you?" asked Alice, her voice
trembling with anxiety.

"Such was the case--his intimation bein' audible, and venomous. I