"Free to do as you like except fight my men," said Kells. "That's
understood."
"If they don't pick a fight with me," added the giant, and he
grinned.
One by one his followers went through with the simple observances
that Kells's personality made a serious and binding compact.
"Anybody else?" called Kells, glancing round. The somberness was
leaving his face.
"Here's Jim Cleve," said Pearce, pointing toward the wall.
"Hello, youngster! Come here. I'm wanting you bad," said Kells.
Cleve sauntered out of the shadow, and his glittering eyes were
fixed on Gulden. There was an instant of waiting. Gulden looked at
Cleve. Then Kells quickly strode between them.
"Say, I forgot you fellows had trouble," he said. He attended solely
to Gulden. "You can't renew your quarrel now. Gulden, we've all
fought together more or less, and then been good friends. I want
Cleve to join us, but not against your ill will. How about it?"
"I've no ill will," replied the giant, and the strangeness of his
remark lay in its evident truth. "But I won't stand to lose my other
ear!"
Then the ruffians guffawed in hoarse mirth. Gulden, however, did not
seem to see any humor in his remark. Kells laughed with the rest.
Even Cleve's white face relaxed into a semblance of a smile.
"That's good. We're getting together," declared Kells. Then he faced
Cleve, all about him expressive of elation, of assurance, of power.
"Jim, will you draw cards in this deal?"
"What's the deal?" asked Cleve.
Then in swift, eloquent speech Kells launched the idea of his Border
Legion, its advantages to any loose-footed, young outcast, and he
ended his brief talk with much the same argument he had given Joan.
Back there in her covert Joan listened and watched, mindful of the
great need of controlling her emotions. The instant Jim Cleve had
stalked into the light she had been seized by a spasm of trembling.
"Kells, I don't care two straws one way or another," replied Cleve.
The bandit appeared nonplussed. "You don't care whether you join my
Legion or whether you don't?"
"Not a damn," was the indifferent answer.
"Then do me a favor," went on Kells. "Join to please me. We'll be
good friends. You're in bad out here on the border. You might as
well fall in with us."
"I'd rather go alone."
"But you won't last."