ing man's face.

"I just stepped over to inquire what you-all'd like for breakfast this
mornin'," he said with a grin. "Not that it matters much, 'cause the
dumb-waiter down to where you be ain't waitin' to-day, but it's
manners, kinder, to ask."

Wade looked up at him grimly, but said nothing. Just awake as he was,
his healthy stomach clamored for food, but since none would be given
him, he knew that he might as well try to be patient.

"Mebbe you'd like to step over to our hotel an' take your meals, eh?"
The Texan went on, after a short pause. "I've got a pot of coffee bilin'
an' a mess o' bacon fryin'. No?" He grinned sardonically. "How'd you
like me to give you some o' this here cabareet stuff, while you're
waitin'? I ain't no great shucks as a entertainer, but I'll do what I
can. Mebbe, you'd like to know how I happened to catch you that clump on
the head yesterday. Huh?

"I was up in the low branches of a thick pine, where you was moseyin'
along. You was that busy watchin' the ground, you never thought to raise
them eyes o' yourn. I just reached down and lammed you good with a piece
of stick, an' here you be, safe an' sound as a beetle in a log. Here
you'll stay, too, likely, on-less you get some sense, and I don't know
when that there dumbwaiter'll get to runnin'. It's a shame, too, if you
ask me, 'cause a man needs his three or four squares a day in this here
climate."

"How much do you want to give me a hand out of here, Neale?" the
cattleman demanded abruptly, tired of listening to the fellow's
monotonous drawl; and after all the chance was worth taking.

The eyes of the Texan glittered.

"Got the money on you?"

"You'd get the money all right."

"Sure, son, I know that--if you had it! I'd just hold my gun on you, an'
you'd toss the roll up here, without puttin' me to the trouble o' givin'
you no hand." He chuckled in appreciation of his own humor. "But I know
you ain't got it on you--we frisked you down yonder in the timber--an' I
don't deal in no promises. This here is a cash game. If I thought
tha...."

He whirled about suddenly, looking behind him and seemed to listen for
an instant; then his hand dropped to the gun at his hip. He never drew
the weapon, however, for with a horrible facial grimace, as his body
contorted under the impact of a bullet, he threw his arms into the air
and reeled over the edge of the hole. A second afterward the report of a
rifle came to Wade's ears.

"Hello!" the