nts, we'll take
them to safe quarters elsewhere--to-night if possible, to-morrow at
the latest, in fast machines. These men have friends, remember."

"You've Burkhardt handcuffed; it might be well to gag him, too, for
fear the crowd might make trouble if he yelled for help," Weir
replied.

"Yes, we'll do that, though I think we can rush him into the jail
before anyone knows what's happening."

On the outskirts of town therefore the cars stopped. When Burkhardt,
who had recovered his senses and with them a knowledge of his plight,
perceived the sheriff's intention his rage burst all bounds.

"You fool, you muddle-headed blunderer!" he exclaimed, with a string
of oaths. "Take these cuffs off! You'll lose your job for this trick.
When I see Sorenson----"

"When you see him, you'll see him; and that will be inside a cell,"
was the cool rejoinder. "I didn't know you were a dynamiter and
would-be murderer until to-night, but I watched you at work and saw
you shoot twice at Weir."

"You'll unlock these, I say, here and now!" And the raging voice went
off in a further stream of biting curses. "Look at me; I'm Burkhardt.
You're crazy to talk of throwing me in jail, with my influence
and----"

"Your influence be damned," was the imperturbable answer. "You'll have
a long time in a penitentiary to see how much influence you have, if
you don't swing first."

Burkhardt struggled fiercely for a moment against the steel bands
about his wrists and the men who held him.

"No crook like this Weir shall ever send me behind bars, or any other
man put me there. Wait till Sorenson and Vorse and Judge Gordon learn
what you're trying! Wait till they find out you've double-crossed us
for this engineer! Wait till Gordon turns me loose with a _habeas
corpus_, you'll sweat blood for this night's work, Madden!"

The sheriff shook out the red handkerchief with which he expected to
bind the prisoner's mouth.

"I'll wait for a long time if I wait for Gordon to issue the writ," he
remarked. "Seeing that he's dead."

"Dead! You're a liar, you sneaking cur; you can't bluff me. And when
I'm loose, if I don't fill you full of lead it will be because----"

But Burkhardt's explanation was never finished on that point, for
Madden whipped the rolled handkerchief over his mouth and quickly
knotted it behind, shutting off the flow of seething vituperative
speech. If looks could slay, those he received from the prisoner's
bloodshot maddened eyes