At approximately the same time as Tanner and Murdoch were exchanging blows in the Boar's Head saloon, Jesse Logan had arrived at the BAR-O ranchhouse. He rode to the back of the house where the horses were usually stabled, and finding none, assumed automatically that his worst fears had been realized.

Still, he had nearly killed his horse in his haste to reach the ranch, so, after letting him cool down, he watered him, then carefully rubbed him down, then fed him some oats and a flake of hay which he retrieved from the hayloft above. As he was rounding the corner to the front of the house, he caught a brief glimpse of the carnage which had been wrought by the Esperanza gang the night before then noticed a rider approaching, just cresting the hill overlooking the ranch and bunkhouses. Quickly, he ducked back behind the ranchhouse, hoping he had not been observed.

The rider turned out to be Chico Portalis. Portalis rode into the yard separating the main house from the bunk house then dismounted, and began going over the scene of the atrocities committed the previous night. As he went around examining the mutilated and burned bodies of the one-time BAR-O employees, and Joe Bolton, he became so engrossed in his own thoughts that he failed to hear Jesse Logan as he walked up to within a few feet of him.

Portalis glanced up startled as a voice behind him drawled, "I don't reckon you'd know anything about this would you Portalis?"

"The pistolero whirled around and glared at Logan defiantly and said, "NO, I dohn', I joos arrived!"

"Yeah, I can see that. But what the hell are you doing on Bolton's property, unless you were checking to see if the Esperanzas finished the job Tanner hired 'em to do?" Logan prodded.

"Joo bettor watch joor mouth, gringo. Joo make me angry an I weel haf to keel joo." Portalis growled.

But it was Logan who was becoming angry. He walked over to the virtually unrecognizable body of Joe Bolton, which was still hanging upon the spit. He knew it was Bolton from the fancy Mexican style boots upon his feet which had remained virtually undamaged by the fire. His eyes narrowed and went gray. When he opened his mouth, he was barely able to speak due to the rage that was welling up inside of him.

"Chico, I'm gonna give you the chance to confess what you know about this. If you didn't help do any of this, I'll let you go. Just tell me that Tanner was behind it." Logan said through clenched teeth.

"Go to Hell, gringo." Portalis snapped.

Logan's eyes narrowed again as he looked directly into the eyes of the pistolero. Perceiving the intensity of Logan's anger, and the complete absence of fear, Portalis averted his gaze ever so slightly. Uncertainty crept into him. He had thought that he feared no man outside of Muerte, who was not really a man at all. But suddenly, almost instinctively, he began to be afraid. Yet as he looked into the young gunman's piercing, now ice-blue eyes, some deep inner sense warned him of danger. If he had seen a demon in Muerte's eyes, it was as if in Logan's, he were seeing an angel. But not of the guardian variety, rather an avenging one, whose vengeance was about to be visited upon himself.

He sloughed off his fears. After all, it was only an angry gringo. Only a man, and he was confident that no man possessed his speed with a revolver.

Portalis looked back at Logan and said, "Joo are loco, gringo. I come heere because Senor Tanner, he loose a lot of beef las night. I find that the trail leads over heer. Eef the Esperanzas do thees to Bolton, then they also steal from Tanner. I tell Tanner thees. That ees why I am come heere."

"You're lying, Portalis. I saw you ride in, and you came over that ridge, which means, you came from the direction of Olsen's Falls. You can drop your guns on the ground. I'll take 'em and we'll ride back a ways. If it turns out that your tracks come from the same direction as the Esperanza's, I'll give you your guns back and you can ride on. If not, I am gonna take you to a friend of mine named Zach Baynes. He knows how ta make folks tell the truth, maybe even better than Muerte."

"Joo wan' my guns, joo come and geet theem, Gringo!" Portalis snapped angrily.

Logan started forward and Portalis went for his gun.

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