reason," answered the doctor, alarmed, "except, I
suppose, old friendship----"

"Damn old friendship!" burst out Buck Daniels. "There's an end to all
things and my friendship is worn out--on both sides. It's done!"

He turned and scowled at the house.

"Help her to win _him_ over? I'd rather stick the muzzle of my gun down
my throat and pull the trigger. I'd rather see her marry a man about to
hang. Well--to hell with this place. I'm through with it. S'long, doc."

But Doctor Byrne ran after him and halted him at the foot of the steps
down from the veranda.

"My dear Mr. Daniels," he urged, touching the arm of Buck. "You really
mustn't leave so suddenly as this. There are a thousand questions on the
tip of my tongue."

Buck Daniels regarded the professional man with a hint of weariness and
disgust.

"Well," he said, "I'll hear the first couple of hundred. Shoot!"

"First: the motive that sends you away."

"Dan Barry."

"Ah--ah--fear of what he may do?"

"Damn the fear. At least, it's him that makes me go."

"It seems an impenetrable mystery," sighed the doctor. "I saw you the
other night step into the smoking hell of that barn and keep the way
clear for this man. I knew, before that, how you rode and risked your
life to bring Dan Barry back here. Surely those are proofs of
friendship!"

Buck Daniels laughed unpleasantly. He laid a large hand on the shoulder
of the doctor and answered: "If them was the only proofs, doc, I
wouldn't feel the way I do. Proofs of friendship? Dan Barry has saved me
from the--rope!--and he's saved me from dyin' by the gun of Jim Silent.
He took me out of a rotten life and made me a man that could look honest
men in the face!"

He paused, swallowing hard, and the doctor's misty, overworked eyes
lighted with some comprehension. He had felt from the first a certain
danger in this big fellow, a certain reckless disregard of laws and
rules which commonly limit the actions of ordinary men. Now part of the
truth was hinted at. Buck Daniels, on a time, had been outside the law;
and Barry had drawn him back to the ways of men. That explained some of
the singular bond that lay between them.

"That ain't all," went on Buck. "Blood is thick, and I've loved him
better nor a brother. I've gone to hell and back for him. For him I took
Kate Cumberland out of the hands of Jim Silent, and I left myself in
her place. I took her away and all so's she could go to him. Damn him!
And now on acco