Black Morgan Gandil reined his horse close by, leaned to peer down,
and the shadow of his hat fell across the face of Pierre.

"There's no good comes of savin' shipwrecked men. Leave him where you
found him, Jim. That's my advice. Sidestep a redheaded man. That's
what I say."

The quick-stepping horse of Bud Mansie came near, and the rider wiped
his stiff lips, and spoke from the side of his mouth, a prison habit
of the line that moves in the lockstep: "Take it from me, Jim, there
ain't any place in our crew for a man you've picked up without knowing
him beforehand. Let him lay, I say." But big Dick Wilbur was already
leading up the horse of Hal Boone, and into the saddle Jim Boone swung
the inert body of Pierre. The argument was settled, for every man of
them knew that nothing could turn Boone back from a thing once begun.
Yet there were muttered comments that drew Black Morgan Gandil and Bud
Mansie together.

And Gandil, from the South Seas, growled with averted eyes: "This is
the most fool stunt the chief has ever pulled."

"Right, pal," answered Mansie. "You take a snake in out of the cold,
and it bites you when it comes to in the warmth; but the chief has
started, and there ain't nothing that'll make him stop, except maybe
God or McGurk."

And Black Gandil answered with his evil, sudden grin: "Maybe McGurk,
but not God."

They started on again with Garry Patterson and Dick Wilbur riding