Brand Blotters

"It is not what I have done, but what your friends have done. Yesterday I

went to exchange West for the ransom money. Most of my men I had to take

with me, to guard against foul play. We held the cañon from the flat tops,

and everything went all right. The exchange was made. We took the ransom

money back to the Cache. I don't know how it was--whether somebody played

me false and sold us, or whether your friend Flatray got loose and his

posse stumbled in by accident. But there they were in the Cache when we

got back."

"Yes?" The keenest agitation was in Melissy's voice.

"They took us by surprise. We fought. Two of my men ran away. Two were

shot down. I was alone."

"And then?"

The devil of torment moved in him. "Then I shot up one of your friend's

outfit, rode away, changed my mind, and went back, shot your friend, and

hiked off into the hills with a pack horse loaded with gold."

Out of all this one thing stood out terribly to her. "You shot Jack

Flatray--again!"

He laughed. One lie more or less made no difference. "I sure did."

She had to moisten her lips before she could ask the next question:

"You--killed him?"

"No--worse luck!"

"How do you know?"

"He and another man were on the trail after me to-day. I saw them pass up

Moose Creek from a ledge on which I was lying. If I had had a rifle, I

would have finished the job; but my carbine was gone. It was too far for a

six-gun."

"But, if you wounded him last night, how could he be trailing you

to-day?"

"I reckon it was a flesh wound. His shoulder was tied up, I noticed."

Impatiently he waved Flatray out of the conversation. "I didn't come here

to tell you about him. I got to get out on tonight's train. This country

has grown too hot for me. You're going with me?"

"No!"

"Yes, by God!"

"I'll never go with you--never--never!" she cried passionately. "I'm free

of the bargain. You broke faith. So shall I."

She saw his jaw clamp. "So you're going to throw me down, are you?"

Melissy stood before him, slim and straight, without yielding an inch. She

was quite colorless, for he was a man with whose impulses she could not

reckon. But one thing she knew. He could never take her away with him and

escape. And she knew that he must know it, too.