"
They had gone scarce a mile farther when Pierre, chancing to turn round,
saw a horseman riding hard after them. They drew up, and soon the man--
a Rider of the Plains--was beside them. He had stopped at Throng's to
find Halby, and had followed them. Murder had been committed near the
border, and Halby was needed at once. Halby stood still, numb with
distress, for there was Lydia. He turned to Pierre in dismay. Pierre's
face lighted up with the spirit of fresh adventure. Desperate
enterprises roused him; the impossible had a charm for him.
"I will go to Fort O'Battle," he said. "Give me another pistol."
"You cannot do it alone," said Halby, hope, however, in his voice.
"I will do it, or it will do me, voila!" Pierre replied. Halby passed
over a pistol.
"I'll never forget it, on my honour, if you do it," he said.
Pierre mounted his horse and said, as if a thought had struck him: "If I
stand for the law in this, will you stand against it some time for me?"
Halby hesitated, then said, holding out his hand, "Yes, if it's nothing
dirty."
Pierre smiled. "Clean tit for clean tat," he said, touching Halby's
fingers, and then, with a gesture and an au revoir, put his horse to the
canter, and soon a surf of snow was rising at two points on the prairie,
as the Law trailed south and east.
That night Pierre camped in the Jim-a-long-Jo, finding there firewood in
plenty, and Tophet was made comfortable in the lean-to.
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