from which he had seen the fellow emerge.

"Would you know him again?"'

"Yes."

"Do you see him in this room?"

Ellis, just off his run, had reached the court-room only a second
before he stepped to the stand. Now he looked around, surprised at the
lawyer's question. His wandering eye halted at Lane.

"There he is."

"Which man do you mean?"

"The one on the end of the bench."

"At what time did this take place?"

"Lemme see. About quarter-past ten, maybe."

"Which way did he go when he left you?"

"Toward Fifteenth Street."

"That is all." The lawyer turned briskly toward Kirby. "Mr. Lane,
will you take the stand?"

Every eye focused on the range rider. As he moved forward and took the
oath the scribbling reporters found in his movements a pantherish
lightness, in his compact figure rippling muscles perfectly under
control. There was an appearance of sunburnt competency about him, a
crisp confidence born of the rough-and-tumble life of the outdoor West.
He did not look like a cold-blooded murderer. Women found themselves
hoping that he was not. The jaded weariness of the sensation-seekers
vanished at sight of him. A man had walked upon the stage, one full of
vital energy.

The assistant district attorney led him through the usual
preliminaries. Lane said that he was by vocation a cattleman, by
avocation a rough rider. He lived at Twin Buttes, Wyoming.

One of the reporters leaned toward another and whispered, "By Moses,
he's the same Lane that won the rough-riding championship at Pendleton
and was second at Cheyenne last year."

"Are you related to James Cunningham, the deceased?" asked the lawyer.

"His nephew."

"How long since you had seen him prior to your visit to Denver this
time?"

"Three years."

"What were your relations with him?"

The coroner interposed. "You need answer no questions tending to
incriminate you, Mr. Lane."

A sardonic smile rested on the rough rider's lean, brown face. "Our
relations were not friendly," he said quietly.

A ripple of excitement swept the benches.

"What was the cause of the bad feeling between you?"

"A few years ago my father fell into financial difficulties. He was
faced with bankruptcy. Cunningham not only refused to help him, but
was the hardest of his creditors. He hounded him to the time of my
father's death a few months later. His death was due to a breakdown
caused by intense worry."

"You felt that Mr. Cunningh