's
face was almost as white as Crowdy's.

Lee knelt and with quick fingers sought the wound. There was a hole in
Crowdy's chest, high up near the throat, that was bleeding profusely.
At first that seemed the only wound. But in a second Lee had found
another. This was in the leg, and this, like Lee's, was bound tightly
with a handkerchief.

"Got that, first rattle out of the box!" commented Lee. "See it?
That's why he stuck on the job and didn't try to run for it. Looks
like a rifle-ball had smashed the bone."

He didn't look up. His fingers, busy with the string at Crowdy's belt,
brought away the canvas bag. There was blood on it; it was heavy and
gave forth the mellow jangle of gold.

"You win back your thousand on to-night's play," he said, holding up
the bag to Judith, lifting his eyes to her face.

But Judith shrank back, her eyes wide with horror.

"I don't want it! I can never touch it!" she whispered.

Suddenly she was shaking from head to foot, her eyes fixed in terrible
fascination upon Crowdy's face. Lee tossed the bag to the bunk across
the room, whence it fell clanking to the floor.

"Now she's going to faint," was his thought. "Well, I won't blame her
so damn much. Poor little kid!"

But he did not look at her again. He tore away Crowdy's shirt to
discover just how serious the wound in the chest was. The collar-bone
had been broken; the ball had ploughed its way through the upper chest,
well above the heart, and could be felt under the skin of the shoulder.
Unless Bill Crowdy bled to death, he stood an excellent chance of doing
time in the penitentiary. Lee stanched the flow of blood, made a rude
bandage, and then, lifting the body gently, carried it to the bunk.
Crowdy's lax arm, extended downward at the side of the bunk, seemed to
be reaching again for the canvas bag; the red fingers touched it with
their tips.

"Now," said Lee, speaking bluntly, afraid that a tone of sympathy might
merely aid the girl to "shake to pieces," "we've got a chance to be on
our way before Number Two and Number Three get into the game. Let's
run for it, Judith."

Judith went to the bench by the fireplace and sank down upon it. For a
moment she made no reply. Then she shook her head.

"We'll stay here until morning," she said finally, her voice surprising
Lee, who had looked for a sign of weakening to accord with her sudden
pallor and visible trembling.

"What for?" he wanted to know. "We'll ha