fraid of them? Hell! I'd walk through an ant
hill as scared as I would through that mob. Thanks for telling me, Dan,
but Jim Cargan won't be in the mollycoddle class for a century or two
yet."

"Yes, sir," said the patrolman admiringly. He hurried out of the car,
and the mayor turned to find Lou Max pale and fearful by his side.

"What ails you now?" he asked.

"I'm afraid," cried Max. "Did you hear what he said? A mob. I saw a mob
once. Never again for me." He tried to smile, to pass it off as a
pleasant jest, but he had to wet his lips with his tongue before he
could go on. "Come on, Jim. Get off here. Don't be a fool."

The train began to move.

"Get off yourself, you coward," sneered Cargan. "Oh, I know you. It
doesn't take much to make your stomach shrink. Get off."

Max eagerly seized his hat and bag.

"I will, if you don't mind," he said. "See you later at Charlie's." And
in a flash of tawdry attire, he was gone.

The mayor of Reuton no longer sat limp in his seat. That brief moment of
seeming surrender was put behind forever. He walked the aisle of the
car, fire in his eyes, battle in his heart.

"So they're waiting for me, eh?" he said aloud. "Waiting for Jim Cargan.
Now ain't it nice of them to come and meet their mayor?"

Mr. Magee and the professor went into the day coach for their baggage.
Mrs. Norton motioned to the former.

"Well," she said, "you know now, I suppose. And it didn't do you no harm
to wait. I sure am glad this to-do is all over, and that child is safe.
And I hope you'll remember what I said. It ain't no work for a woman, no
how, what with the shooting and the late hours."

"Your words," said Mr. Magee, "are engraven on my heart." He proceeded
to gather her baggage with his own, and was thus engaged when Kendrick
came up. The shadow of his discovery in the smoking-car an hour before
still haunted his sunken eyes, but his lips were half smiling with the
new joy of living that had come to him.

"Mr. Magee," he began, "I hardly need mention that the terrible thing
which happened--in there--is between you and me--and the man who's dead.
No one must know. Least of all, the girl who is to become my wife--it
would embitter her whole life--as it has mine."

"Don't say that," Magee pleaded. "You will forget in time, I'm sure. And
you may trust me--I had forgotten already." And indeed he had, on the
instant when his eyes fell upon the _Reuton Star_.

Miss Thornhill approached, her dar