ld for you, Ward, but the
way the cards laid I couldn't--"

"Get me hanged. I know; you sure tried hard enough!" Ward puffed hard
at his cigarette, and the lips that held it trembled a little.
Otherwise he seemed perfectly cool and calm.

"Say, Ward, them lawyers lied to you."

"Oh, cut it out, Buck. I've seen you wriggle through a snake-hole
before. I believe you're my friend, just the way you've always been."

"That's right, Ward, and I can prove it."

Ward snorted. "You proved it, old-timer, when you laid up there behind
a rock with your sights on this shack, ready to get me when I came out.
I sabe now how it happened Jim McGuire was found face down in the
spring behind his shack, with a bullet hole in his back, that time.
You were his friend, too!"

"Ward, I--"

"Shut up. I just wanted to see if you'd changed any in the last seven
years. You haven't, unless it's for the worse. You've got to the end
of the trail, old-timer. When you went laying for me, you fixed
yourself a-plenty. Do you want to know what I'm going to do with you?"

"Ward, you wouldn't dare shoot me! With the record you've got, you
wouldn't stand--"

"Who gave it to me, huh? Oh, I heap sabe; you've left word with your
pardners that you were coming up here to arrest me single-handed. They
will give the alarm, if you don't show up; and I'll go on the dodge and
get caught and--" Ward threw away his cigarette and took a step toward
his captive; a step so ominous that Buck squirmed in his bonds.

"Well, you can rest easy on one point. I'm not going to shoot you."
Ward stood still and watched the light of hope flare in the eyes of his
enemy. "I'm going to wash the dishes and take a shave--and then I'm
going to take you out somewhere and hang you."

"My God, Ward! You--you--"

"I told you, seven years ago," went on Ward steadily, "that I'd see you
hung before I was through with you. Remember? By rights you ought to
hang by the heels, over a slow fire! You're about as low a specimen of
humanity as I ever saw or heard of. You know what you did for me,
Buck. And you know what I told you would happen; well, it's going to
come off according to the programme.

"I did think of running you in and giving you a taste of hell yourself.
But, as usual, you've gone and tangled up a couple of fellows that
never did me any particular harm and I don't want to hand them anything
if I can help it. So I'll just string you up--after awhile