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is you claim to come from. Tell him who you worked for, and for how long; who you claim to know; who your friends claim to be.”
    Webb told him he came from over in Big Joe County; that he worked for the Double Pitchfork; that he was breaking out horses for Henry Warren; that his friends were almost anyone in the county-seat town who would talk.
    When he was finished, Buck said to Stoop, “You got that? All right, get some grub from Charley and light out.”
    â€œTonight?”
    â€œYes. Now.”
    Stoop went out. The chunky man fiddled with his Stetson until Tolleston said a little less sharply, “Sit down, Budrow. This’ll take time.”
    Then Tolleston, talking to Budrow, again reviewed the bank robbery in town that morning and the part Webb had played in it. Webb noticed that Tolleston remembered and related everything, even down to Iron Hat Petty’s bit of dubious evidence.
    â€œNow, Budrow, what I want you to do is this,” Tolleston said. “I want you to ride down to Bull Foot.”
    McCaslon leaned forward, his mouth open to speak, but Buck did not even glance at him.
    â€œYou’ve never been down there, and to the best of my memory, no Wintering man has ever seen you since you’ve been in this country, has he?”
    Budrow scowled. “No, I don’t reckon so. I come over the mountains from the west, and this is the first spread I made. It took a couple of months for you to feed me up, and I ain’t been to Wagon Mound only three, four times.”
    â€œYes. So you won’t be known. We’ll hair brand a horse for you so your brand won’t give you away. You’ll travel tonight and put into Bull Foot tomorrow from the south. I want you to hang around Bull Foot, in the saloons, dance halls, gamblin’ layouts, and such. Talk to anyone that’ll talk—even the sheriff. And keep your eyes open. What I want is this—any kind of proof you can get that this bank robbery in Wagon Mount was planned by that Wintering crew. I don’t care how long it takes. Get a job with an outfit if you have to. If you see anybody spendin’ more money than usual, find out where it came from. Be inquisitive, act dumb, get drunk, pick up with saloon bums. Do anything that’ll get you this information. And when you get it, ride back to me with it.”
    McCaslon said slowly, “Buck, that’s liable to take a man a year. Is it worth it, just so’s you can put a noose on this man’s neck?” He jerked a thumb at Webb.
    â€œThat isn’t all of it, Mac,” Tolleston slowly replied. “I like to see justice done, and I aim to see Cousins gets justice. But more than that, I think it’ll mean a toe-hold that’ll give us a chance to smash that Wintering crowd for good and all.”
    â€œHow?”
    Tolleston’s eyes focused on Mac. “How?” he said gently. “This way. Maybe I got a longer memory than most of you. Maybe I haven’t, but it seems like I’m the only man here that can remember the day we picked up and left our range over there in Wintering to start all over again up here. I never forget it. It’s with me all the time, Mac—that and the picture of that Bannister outfit hootin’ at us from the hills as we drove our stuff off.” His voice was grave, measured, more impersonal than Webb had heard it before, and therefore, he guessed, richer in meaning than any other words Tolleston had spoken.
    â€œI remember it, Mac. I live for the day when I’ll pay off that score. But I can’t do it without men—and I haven’t got them.”
    â€œThe whole country remembers it, Buck. All us old-timers, anyway.”
    â€œBut not like me and you,” Tolleston said swiftly. “They, remember it, but they don’t get fightin’ mad over it. They’ve worked up new places here, had families and built up their herds. Men like Will Wardecker, who fought