“Don't be giving me all that sass, McBride. I don't know the country. I can't go traipsing up there alone to confront three of them, four counting that old horse thief Sisson. Might as well just shoot myself down here and save wear and tear on my horse. I need someone to go up there with me. I'm not lazy. I'm not scared. But I ain't going up there alone, either.”

“You could hire some of the locals to take you up there. There's plenty around who know just where that mine is.”

“Funny you should mention that, because that's the marshal's and my opinion, too. And you're the local I'm going to hire. I got authorization to deputize you and Kane to come with me and arrest those boys. If there's going to be shooting, I want someone I can trust to get my back.”

“Who says there's going to be shooting? I don't see any reason for shooting. And I'm not going to be deputized, either.”

“Oh yes you are. McBride, do you understand what's going on in this country? All over the country, vigilante groups, gangs, are looking for slackers. Back east, they're hunting them down and beating them to death on the street. Around here, where things are tidier, we're hanging or shooting them. Is that what you want in your county? You want a mess like Wheeler had in Bisbee last summer when he had to go against the Wobblies down there?”

“No. Of course not. It's not going to happen here.”

“It is going to happen here. You got no less than Teddy Roosevelt out riling up the public against slackers. He's saying this is a form of treason. I don't want to open up the paper and see news of lynching or riots in my district. I don't want people beat to death on the streets of Safford, and I'm pretty sure you don't want that, either.”

“And you're not going to get it. That won't happen in Safford or anywhere else in Graham County. There aren't many places that respect the law like Graham County does. We'll get them, arrest them, and hand them over for trial. There will be no riots, no killing. Not here.”

“You know what else I don't want to see in the paper? Come November I don't want to see that you got your ass handed to you in the election because you refused to be deputized and bring criminal slackers to justice. I don't think you want to see that, either. Though young Martin over there, he might enjoy the story.”

“You can't scare me into this, Haynes. It's not going to happen.”