you're right. I've
sold you. They're out there, all of 'em, waitin' in the rocks. For God's
sake take my gun and pump me full of lead!"

He threw his arms out, clear of his holster and turned that Barry
might draw his revolver. Vaguely he knew that Haines and Buck had drawn
swiftly close to him from either side; vaguely he heard the cry of Kate;
but all that he clearly understood was the merciless, unmoved face of
Barry. It was pretense; with all his being he wanted to die, but when
Barry made no move to strike he turned desperately to the others.

"Do the job for him. He saved my life and then I used it to sell him.
Daniels, Haines, I got no use for livin'."

"Vic," he said, "take--this!--and march to your friends outside; and
when you get through them, plant a forty-five slug in your own dirty
heart and then rot." Haines held out his gun with a gesture of contempt.

But Kate slipped in front of him, white and anguish.

"It was the girl you told me about, Vic?" she said. "You did it to get
back to her?"

He dropped his head.

"Dan, let him go!"

"I got no thought of usin' him."

"Why not?" cried Vic suddenly. "I'll do the way Haines said. Or else let
me stay here and fight 'em off with you. Dan, for God's sake give me one
chance to make good."

It was like talking to a face of stone.

"The door's open for you, and waitin'. One thing before you go. That's
the same gang you told me about before? Ronicky Joe, Harry Fisher, Gus
Reeve, Mat Henshaw, Sliver Waldron and Pete Glass?"

"Harry Fisher's dead, Dan, if you'll give me one fightin' chance to play
square now--"

"Tell 'em that I know 'em. Tell 'em one thing more. I thought Grey Molly
was worth only one man. But I was wrong. They've done me dirt and played
crooked. They come huntin' me--with a decoy. Now tell 'em from me that
Grey Molly is worth seven men, and she's goin' to be paid for in full."

He stepped to the wall and took down the bridle which Vic had hung
there.

"I guess you'll be needin' this?"

It ended all talk; it even seemed to Gregg that as soon as he received
the bridle from the hand of Barry the truce ended with a sudden period
and war began. He turned slowly away.

Chapter XVI. Man-Hunting

As Vic Gregg left the house, the new moon peered at him over a black
mountain-top, a sickle of white with a half imaginary line rounding
the rest of the circle, and to the shaken mind of Vic it seemed as if a
ghostly spectator had come ou