 When Summers meets Caudill on the trail and confronts him with the facts that Caudill unjustly killed his best friend, Caudill leaps on Summers and attempts to strangle him.Although he has his knife in his hand and will die if Caudill continues the throttling, Summers cannot bring himself to stab.He is losing consciousness when he hears a shot—Hig has killed Caudill and afterward says, "He didn't mean nothin' to me."