before the idea of more

 All the way back to the cave Blue Pete pondered over the situation. The attack was four days off. There was little time if the I.W.W. plans were to be defeated with certainty and completeness. Reinforcements must be brought from other Police posts--therein alone lay certain safety.   The halfbreed hesitated before the idea of more Mounted Police about until he had completed his work; and they might be summoned any time by wire from the gravel pit at Mile 135, where a ticker had just been installed for the work of filling in the trestle. Also he paused before the indignity of calling in reinforcements to defeat a lot of blundering fools and cowards. Deep within him was the conviction that nothing more was required than his own unerring rifle. Only the matter of those ninety-two rifles and the presence of Tressa Torrance forced him to consider the situation worthy of prolonged thought. He decided to take the night to think it over. To-morrow after dark would be ample time to carry out any plan that seemed wise.   The result of a wakeful night was the decision to carry the story to Torrance and leave the rest in his hands. That plan, too, fitted in with certain undefined ambitions of his own. He did not want the Police to know far enough ahead to nip the whole affair in the bud. Blue Pete loved a scrap; he had also certain definite debts to pay to Koppy, and the thought of a lot of bohunks within range of a licensed rifle made him smile happily. An inborn decency craved to teach these brutes decency in the only way he knew.   All day long he fought a crowding impatience. He had early come to the decision to keep Mira in the dark. She would take the threatened attack more seriously than it deserved, and perhaps forestall his plans--probably run to the Police right away. Besides, he did not want her to be involved in the battle that promised.