care to know why, I'll tell
you. It's just because your heart isn't in it. One half of you is on my
side. You're just not blackguard enough."

"And so you want to send me to Arizona to mature?" suggested Nap grimly.

"Or to find yourself," Lucas substituted. "Say, Boney, if you don't give
in pretty soon I'll make you take me along."

"You!" Nap's eyes came down at last to the drawn face. He gave a slight
start, and the next moment stooped to lift the tortured frame to another
position. "If Capper were here he'd say I was killing you," he said. "For
Heaven's sake, man, rest!"

"No," gasped Lucas. "No! I haven't finished--yet. Boney, you--you've got
to listen. There's no quarrel between us. Only if you will be so damned
headstrong, I must be headstrong too. I mean what I say. If you won't go
to Arizona alone, you will go with me. And we'll start to-night."

Nap's thin lips twitched, but with no impulse to ridicule. He rearranged
the pillows with his usual dexterous rapidity, then deliberately laid his
hand upon the lined forehead and stood so in utter silence, staring
unblinking straight before him.

For many seconds Lucas also lay passive. His eyelids drooped heavily,
but he would not suffer them to close. He was yet watching, watching
narrowly, the flame that still smouldered and might blaze afresh at
any moment.

"Give it up, Boney!" he said at last. "I'll go with you to the ends of
the earth sooner than let you do this thing, and you'll find me a very
considerable encumbrance. Do you honestly believe yourself capable of
shunting me at will?"

"I honestly believe you'll kill yourself if you don't rest," Nap said.

He looked down suddenly into the tired eyes. The fierce glare had gone
utterly out of his own. His very pose had altered.

"Then I shall die in a good cause," Lucas murmured, with the ghost of a
smile. "You needn't say any more, Boney. I guess I shall rest now."

"Because you think you've beaten me," Nap said curtly.

"Guess it's your victory, dear fellow, not mine," Lucas answered
very gently.

A gleam that was not a smile crossed the harsh face, softening but not
gladdening. "It's a mighty hollow one anyway. And I'm not going for
nothing--not even to please you."

"Anything--to the half of my kingdom," Lucas said.

Nap sat down on the edge of the bed. The madness had passed, or he had
thrust it back out of sight in the darkest recesses of his soul. He laid
a hand upon his brother's arm and