aid he, "we didn't know it."

"He deeded his property over this evening and then swallowed poison,"
the engineer stated. "He saw the game was up."

"You can't make me believe your lies," came sneering from Sorenson.
"And you shall pay, you and that girl, for every broken bone in my
boy's body. I'll spend my last dollar for that if necessary. Madden,
do your duty and lock him up."

The sheriff said nothing, but lifted his gun a little. Vorse by a
slight movement of his body had edged from the bar as if to gain
freedom for action.

"The game's up for you men too," Weir said. "You've murdered and
robbed and swindled in this country long enough; I've got the proof
and I'm going to remove you from this community. It's not I who will
be arrested. You killed Jim Dent after cleaning him out at cards and
then made my father believe he was guilty of the crime. All I fear is
that the court will hang you instead of sending you up for life; that
would be too good for you. I want your crooked souls to die a thousand
deaths within stone walls before you die in body. The game's up, I
say. I've Saurez' deposition and I've the man who was the boy looking
in the back door there that day thirty years ago and saw you shoot
Dent, and he'll go on the stand against you."

A stillness so profound that one could hear the tiny insects hovering
about the lamps succeeded this statement. If words had not been
enough, Weir's cold, harsh face would have removed the men's last
hope, for on it was not a single trace of relenting. A stone could
have been no flintier.

"Well?" Vorse inquired softly.

His arched bony nose appeared thinner and more hawk-like. His lips
were compressed in a white scornful smile, while his eyelids now
drooped until but slits of light showed from the orbs.

"And you may be interested to know Burkhardt and some of the Mexicans
he hired are now locked up in jail; the rest, or nearly all, are
dead," Weir continued, with slow distinctness. "Your little scheme to
blow up the dam and burn the camp failed. We caught Burkhardt at the
spot leading the gang. Your plot to make the workmen drunk and leave
the dam unprotected worked well enough so far as that part was
concerned, but a keg of powder dropped on your bunch of imported
bandits ended that part of the show. And we have Burkhardt! You
gentlemen are going to join him in the jail, where we shall give you
all the care and attention you deserve."

Vorse turned his head abo