CHAPTER X.
THE SECOND OBSTACLE Lawler went outside with Caldwell and the others--after Caldwell returned from his visit to Gary Warden--and, standing in the flickering glare of light from inside the hotel, he watched the men ride away.
There was a smile on his lips as he saw them fade into the yawning gulf of moonlit distance,--going in different directions toward their ranches--an ironic smile, softened by understanding and friendship.
For he bore the men no ill will because their decision had not agreed with his.

He had not expected them to do as he was determined to do.

And he had not asked them.
Had it not been for the agreement he had made with Jim Lefingwell the previous spring, Lawler might also have accepted Gary Warden's price rather than face the hazards of the long drive to Red Rock.
Warden's attitude, however, his arrogance, and the hostile dislike in his eyes, had aroused in Lawler a cold contempt for the man.

Added to that was disgust over the knowledge that Warden, and not Jim Lefingwell, was a liar--that Warden had no respect for the sacredness of his word, given to Lefingwell.

The man's honor must be wrapped in a bond or a written contract.
The incident in the Hamlin cabin had contributed hatred to the other passions that contact with Warden had aroused in Lawler; but it had been his visit to Simmons and his talks with Hatfield and the governor that had aroused in him the fighting lust that gripped him now.
The ironic smile had faded when he reached the stable where he had left Red King.