framed a mute
question; but Joe Cumberland drew in a long breath and smiled.

"I knowed it!" he said softly.

The wind whistled somewhere in the house and it brought Buck Daniels
leaping to his feet and into the centre of the room.

"He's here!" he yelled. "God help me, where'll I go now! He's here!"

He had drawn his revolver and stood staring desperately about him as if
he sought for a refuge in the solid wall. Almost instantly he recovered
himself, however, and dropped the gun back into the holster.

"No, not yet," he said, more to himself than the others. "It ain't
possible, even for Dan."

Kate Cumberland rallied herself, though her face was still white. She
stepped to Buck and took both his hands.

"You've been working yourself to death," she said gently. "Buck, you're
hysterical. What have you to fear from Dan? Isn't he your friend? Hasn't
he proved it a thousand times?"

Her words threw him into a fresh frenzy.

"If he gets me, it's blood on your head, Kate. It was for you I done
it."

"No, no, Buck. For Dan's sake alone. Isn't that enough?"

"For _his_ sake?" Buck threw back his head and laughed--a crazy
laughter. "He could rot in hell for all of me. He could foller his wild
geese around the world. Kate, it was for you!"

"Hush!" she pleaded. "Buck, dear!"

"Do I care who knows it? Not I! I got an hour--half an hour to live; and
while I live the whole damned world can know I love you, Kate, from
your spurs to the blue of your eyes. For your sake I brung him, and for
your sake I'll fight him, damn him, in spite----"

The wind wailed again, far off, and Buck Daniels cowered back against
the wall. He had drawn Kate with him, and he now kept her before him,
towards the door.

He began to whisper, swiftly, with a horrible tremble in his voice:
"Stand between me, Kate. Stand between me and him. Talk for me, Kate.
Will you talk for me?" He drew himself up and caught a long, shuddering
breath. "What have I been doin'? What have I been ravin' about?"

He looked about as if he saw the others for the first time.

"Sit here, Buck," said Kate, with perfect quiet. "Give me your hat.
There's nothing to fear. Now tell us."

"A whole day and a whole night," he said, "I been riding with the fear
of him behind me. Kate, I ain't myself, and if I been sayin' things----"

"No matter. Only tell me how you made him follow you."

Buck Daniels swept his knuckles across his forehead, as though to rub
out a horrib