at last went to the pass. In the afternoon, just as I
was rounding the corner of a cliff, there was a shot--then another. The
first went by my head; the second caught me along the ribs, but not to
great hurt. Still, I fell from the shock, and lost some blood. It was
Gawdor; he thought he had killed me.

"When I come to myself I bound up the little furrow in the flesh, and
start away. I know that Gawdor would follow Gordineer. I follow him,
knowing the way he must take. I have never forget the next night. I
had to travel hard, and I track him by his fires and other things. When
sunset come, I do not stop. I was in a valley, and I push on. There was
a little moon. At last I saw a light ahead-a camp-fire, I know. I was
weak, and could have dropped; but a dread was on me.

"I come to the fire. I saw a man lying near it. Just as I saw him,
he was trying to rise. But, as he did so, something sprang out of the
shadow upon him, at his throat. I saw him raise his hand, and strike it
with a knife. The thing let go, and then I fire--but only scratched, I
think. It was a puma. It sprang away again, into the darkness. I ran to
the man, and raised him. It was my friend. He looked up at me and shake
his head. He was torn at the throat.... But there was something else--a
wound in the back. He was stooping over the fire when he was stabbed,
and he fell. He saw that it was Gawdor. He had been left for dead, as
I was. Nom de Dieu! just when I come and could have save him, the puma
come also. It is the best men who have such luck. I have seen it often.
I used to wonder they did not curse God."

He crossed himself and mumbled something. Lawless rose, and walked up
and down the room once or twice, pulling at his beard and frowning. His
eyes were wet. Shon kept blowing into his closed hand and blinking at
the fire. Pourcette got up and took down the gun from the chimney. He
brushed off the dust with his coat-sleeve, and fondled it, shaking his
head at it a little. As he began to speak again, Lawless sat down.

"Now I know why they do not curse. Something curses for them. Jo give me
a word for her, and say 'Well, it is all right; but I wish I had killed
the puma.' There was nothing more.... I followed Gawdor for days. I know
that he would go and get someone, and go back to the gold. I thought at
last I had missed him; but no. I had made up my mind what to do when
I found him. One night, just as the moon was showing over the hills, I
come up