And here--" He interrupted himself, and chuckled audibly, "here you are asking permission to go after him alone! Why, man, it's the very next thing to inviting yourself to commit suicide! Now, if I were to send you, and along with you a good, level-headed man like Moody--" "I have had enough of double-harness work, unless I am commanded to go, Mr.MacGregor," interrupted Philip.

"I realize that DeBar is a dangerous man, but I believe that I can bring him down.

Will you give me the opportunity ?" MacGregor laid his cigar on the edge of the desk and leaned across toward his companion, the long white fingers of his big hands clasped in front of him.

He always took this position, with a cigar smoldering beside him, when about to say those things which he wished to be indelibly impressed on the memory of his listener.
"Yes, I'm going to give you the opportunity," he said slowly, "and I am also going to give you permission to change your mind after I have told you something about DeBar, whom we know as the Seventh Brother.

I repeat that, if you go alone, it's just ten to one that you don't get him.
Since '99 four men have gone out after him, and none has come back.
There was Forbes, who went in that year; Bannock, who took up the trial in 1902; Fleisham in 1904, and Gresham in 1907.