I know him, damn him.

He'll wait till he meets us alone, and then we'll finish as poor Gandil, there, or Patterson and Branch and Bud Mansie, all of them fallen somewhere in the mountains with the buzzards left to bury 'em.

That's how we'll finish with McGurk on our trail.

And you--Gandil was right--it's you that's brought him on us.

A shipwrecked man--by God, Gandil was right!" His right hand froze on the butt of his gun and his face convulsed with impotent rage, for he knew, as both the others knew, that long before that gun was clear of the holster the bullet from Pierre's gun would be on its way.