' that little tin safe
o' yours--say, it looks like you'd had a bit of a rough house, Bud!"

Soapy's cigarette quivered and was still again, while M'Ginnis watched
him, breathing thickly but speaking no word, and Soapy went on again:

"I been takin' a peek into that little tin safe o' yours, an' I found
some papers you'd been kind o' treasurin' up about me, so I burnt 'em,
Bud--not as they mattered very much, there ain't nobody t' worry when
I snuff it--but I found as you'd got other papers about other guys as
would matter some t' them, I guess--so I burnt 'em too, Bud."

"Burnt 'em!" cried M'Ginnis in a strangled voice, "burnt 'em--you--"

"It ain't no use t' get riled, Bud; I burnt 'em--there's th' ashes!"

M'Ginnis glanced at the heap of ash by the stove and burst into a frenzy
of curses and fierce invective, while Soapy, lounging back in the chair,
watched him unmoved until he had done, then he spoke again:

"Also I found--letters, Bud, a packet tied up in blue ribbon--an', Bud,
they matter a whole lot. Here they are--look at 'em!"

For a moment Soapy's baleful eye turned aside to the desk as he reached
for the letters, and in that moment M'Ginnis's pistol spoke, and Soapy,
lurching sideways, sagged to his knees, his back against the desk. Again
and again M'Ginnis's weapon clicked, but no report followed, and Soapy
slowly dragged himself to his feet. His cigarette fell and lay
smouldering, and for a moment he stared at it; then he laughed softly
and glanced at M'Ginnis.

"You fool, Bud, you dog-gone fool! Forgot t' load up y'r gun, eh? But I
guess you got me all right, anyway--you're shootin' better t'night than
you did in the wood that time--eh, Bud? Now I want t' tell you--" He was
choked suddenly with a ghastly coughing, and when he spoke again, his
voice was fainter, and he held a smartly-bordered handkerchief to his
mouth.

"They say God made this world, Bud--if He did, I guess He was asleep
when you was made, Bud--anyway, remembering little Maggie, you ain't got
no right to breathe any longer--so that's for me--an' that's for her!"

Lounging still, he fired twice from the hip and M'Ginnis, twisting upon
his heels, fell and lay with his face at his slayer's feet. Then, spying
the packet of letters that lay upon the grimy floor, Soapy stooped
painfully and fired rapidly four times; when the smoke cleared, of those
tear-blotted pages with their secret of a woman's anguish, there
remained nothing but a c