in me to be. I don't know how good that
is, Polly. But I'll do my level best."

"Oh, I'm so glad," she whispered. "Good luck--heaps of it."

He was not quite sure whether it was his privilege to kiss the parted red
lips upturned to him, but he took a chance and was not rebuked.

Pauline went noiselessly down the steps again into the cellar while
Clanton held the trapdoor. He lowered it inch by inch so that it would
not creak, then spread over it the Navajo rug that had been there before
the entrance of the girl.

Pierre Roubideau was still on his first pipe when Polly came round the
corner of the house and stopped at the porch steps.

"I want to show you our new colt, Jack," she said to the deputy. This
matter-of-fact statement came a little shyly and a little tremulously
from her lips. Her heart was beating furiously.

The officer rose at once. "Just a minute," he said, and went into the
house.

He unlocked the door of the room where Clanton was and glanced in. The
prisoner lay on the bed in the moonlight, the blankets drawn over him.
From his deep, regular breathing Jack judged him to be asleep. He
relocked the door and joined Pauline.

The face of the girl was very white in the moonlight. Her big eyes
flashed at him a question. Had he discovered that his prisoner was free?

They walked slowly toward the corral. From it Goodheart could see the
front of the house, but not the cellar entrance at the side. Neither of
them spoke until they reached the fence. He turned and leaned his elbows
against it, facing the house.

Pauline was under great nervous tension. Her lips were dry and her throat
parched. If the guard at the rear caught sight of the prisoner while he
was escaping, Clanton would certainly be shot down. She knew Jim better
than to hope that he would let himself be taken again alive.

The conscience of the girl troubled her too. She was doing this to save
the life of a friend, but it was impossible not to feel a sense of
treachery toward this other friend whose approval was so much more
vital to her happiness. Would Jack think that she had conspired against
his honor in an underhanded way? He was a man of strict principles. Would
he cast her off and have no more to do with her?

She woke from her worries to discover that an emotional climax was
imminent. Jack was telling her, in awkward, broken phrases, of his love
for her. Polly had waited a long time for his confession, but coming at
this hour it