nt this woman. I may be a fool, but I'm going to have her. I might get
her alone, but we've always done things together--an' so I made you that
proposition. It ain't a hard job. It's one of the easiest jobs we ever had.
Only that fool of a writer is in the way--an' he's got to go anyway. We've
got to get rid of him on account of the gold, him an' MacDonald. We've got
that planned. An' I've showed you how we can get the woman, an' no one ever
know. Are you in on this with me?"

Culver Rann's reply was as quick and sharp as a pistol shot.

"I am."

For another moment there was silence. Then Quade asked:

"Any need of writin', Culver?"

"No. There can't be a written agreement in this deal because--it's
dangerous. There won't be much said about old MacDonald. But questions, a
good many of them, will be asked about this man Aldous. As for the
woman----" Rann shrugged his shoulders with a sinister smile. "She will
disappear like the others," he finished. "No one will ever get on to that.
If she doesn't make a pal like Marie--after a time, why----"

Again Aldous saw that peculiar shrug of his shoulders.

Quade's head nodded on his thick neck.

"Of course, I agree to that," he said. "After a time. But most of 'em have
come over, ain't they, Culver? Eh? Most of 'em have," he chuckled coarsely.
"When you see her you won't call me a fool for going dippy over her,
Culver. And she'll come round all right after she's gone through what we've
got planned for her. I'll make a pal of her!"

In that moment, as he listened to the gloating passion and triumph in
Quade's brutal voice, something broke in the brain of John Aldous. It
filled him with a fire that in an instant had devoured every thought or
plan he had made, and in this madness he was consumed by a single
desire--the desire to kill. And yet, as this conflagration surged through
him, it did not blind or excite him. It did not make him leap forth in
animal rage. It was something more terrible. He rose so quietly that the
others did not see or hear him in the dark outer room. They did not hear
the slight metallic click of the safety on his pistol.

For the space of a breath he stood and looked at them. He no longer sensed
the words Quade was uttering. He was going in coolly and calmly to kill
them. There was something disagreeable in the flashing thought that he
might kill them from where he stood. He would not fire from the dark. He
wanted to experience the exquisite sens