Both had come out of the recent fighting unharmed. Neither Rafe nor
Jeff had fired a shot at the invading forces led by Hawkins. Instead,
the pair had slipped stealthily away, until they had gotten out of the
immediate zone of the hot firing. Then they hid under some bushes.
"An hour ago I'd have felt like a sneak, not standing by the gang any
better," whispered Jeff uneasily.
"Same here," Rafe admitted. "In fact, I'm wondering whether I acted
straight in running off like this."
"Aren't you sure about it in your own mind?" asked Jeff slowly.
"Almost," Rafe returned. "All that bothers me is not sticking by the
same crowd that we started out with to-night. As for Jim Duff--"
"He's poison, and deadly poison at that," broke in Jeff.
"That's just what he is, pardner."
"Yet I used to like Duff pretty well."
"So did I," nodded Jeff. "But that was when I thought he had some
sand."
"The fellow's a skulking coyote!"
"A coyote is brave, compared with Jim Duff," contended Jeff Moore.
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