ce, his unquenchable spirit which was at
once deadly and merciful. Other men would have killed where he saved. I
recalled this magnificent spiritual something about him, remembered it
strongest in the ring of his voice as he appealed to Bo Snecker not to
force him to kill. Then I told how we left a dozen prisoners under guard
and went back to the Hope So to find Blome where he had fallen. Steele's
bullet had cut one of the petals of the rose Snecker had playfully put
in the rustler's buttonhole. Bright and fatal target for an eye like
Steele's! Bo Snecker lay clutching his gun, his face set rigidly in that
last fierce expression of his savage nature. There were five other dead
men on the floor, and, significant of the work of Steele's unknown
allies, Hilliard and Pickens were among them.

"Steele and I made for camp then," I concluded. "We didn't speak a word
on the way out. When we reached camp all Steele said was for me to go
off and leave him alone. He looked sick. I went off, only not very far.
I knew what was wrong with him, and it wasn't bullet-wounds. I was near
when he had his spell and fought it out.

"Strange how spilling blood affects some men! It never bothered me much.
I hope I'm human, too. I certainly felt an awful joy when I sent that
bullet into Blandy's bloated head in time. And I'll always feel that way
about it. But Steele's different."

Chapter 12

TORN TWO WAYS

Steele lay in a shady little glade, partly walled by the masses of
upreared rocks that we used as a lookout point. He was asleep, yet far
from comfortable. The bandage I had put around his head had been made
from strips of soiled towel, and, having collected sundry bloody spots,
it was an unsightly affair. There was a blotch of dried blood down one
side of Steele's face. His shirt bore more dark stains, and in one place
was pasted fast to his shoulder where a bandage marked the location of
his other wound. A number of green flies were crawling over him and
buzzing around his head. He looked helpless, despite his giant size; and
certainly a great deal worse off than I had intimated, and, in fact,
than he really was.

Miss Sampson gasped when she saw him and both her hands flew to her
breast.

"Girls, don't make any noise," I whispered. "I'd rather he didn't wake
suddenly to find you here. Go round behind the rocks there. I'll wake
him, and call you presently."

They complied with my wish, and I stepped down to Steele and ga