He found Lee Haines and told him briefly all that had passed. The great
battle, they decided, had begun between Kate and Barry for the sake of the
child, and that battle would go on until one of them was dead or the prize
for which they struggled lost. Barry would come on the trail and find them
at the ranch, and then he would strike for Joan. And they had no help for
the struggle against him. The cowpunchers would scatter at the first sign
of Barry, at the first shrill of his ill-omened whistling. They might ride
for Elkhead and raise a posse from among the citizens, but it would take
two days to do that and gather a number of effective fighters for the
crisis, and in the meantime the chances were large that Barry would strike
the ranch while the messenger was away. There was really nothing to do but
sit patiently and wait. They were both brave men, very; and they were both
not unpracticed fighters; but they began to wait for the coming of Barry as
the prisoner waits for the day of his execution.
It spoke well for the quality of their nerves that they would not speak to
Kate of the time to come; they sat back like spectators at a play and
watched the maneuvers of the mother to win back Joan.
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