“Now,” said the warden, pocketing one of the papers, “just why did you take the job?”
did“What do you mean?”
“You don’t know me from Adam. The second time I saw you I offered you a warden’s job which you turned down. Now you read a threatening note and change your mind. Do you intend to use the job as a shield, to have the law on your side if somebody comes to get you?”
For a moment Tom was silent. He hadn’t thought of it that way. But the red-haired warden was nobody’s fool; it was a possibility.
was“I don’t know,” Tom said awkwardly.
“What don’t you know?”
“Why I took the job. If this Black Elk came gunning for me I’d fight him off regardless. It’s just, it’s just—”
“Just what?”
“I’ve seen it before. Two of the five years I’ve been away I spent in Eleven Acres. Miners were murder
