house?"

"Mebbe so."

"It's worth five dollars a quart to us, and we will take a quart or
more."

"I reckon I can find a quart for you," was the instant answer.

"If you will secure two horses and a guide to take us over the road to
Elizabethtown to-night we will pay you a hundred dollars."

This offer interested the man with the lamp.

"Bring your friend in here," he said, "and I will see what I can do for
you. Perhaps I can get the horses, and if I can----"

"Do you know the road?"

"I have been over it enough to know it, but it will be no easy traveling
to-night. Better take my advice and stay here until morning."

The man outside, however, would not listen to this, but insisted that
the journey to Elizabethtown must be made that night. He returned to his
companions, and the mounted man was assisted to descend from the saddle.
One of them held his arm while he walked into the house, and the other
took care of the horse.

The lamp showed that the injured one had bloody bandages wrapped about
his head. He was pale and haggard, and there was an expression of
anxiety in his dark eyes. At times he pulled nervously at his small,
dark mustache.

"Bring that whisky at once," said the wounded man's companion, as he
assisted the other to a chair. "He needs a nip of it, and needs it bad."

The whisky was brought, and the injured man drank from the bottle. As he
lifted it to his lips, he murmured:

"May the fiends take the dog who fired that bullet! May he burn forever
in the fires below!"

The liquor seemed to revive him somewhat, and he straightened up a
little, joining his companion in urging the man who had procured the
whisky to secure horses and guide them, over the road to Elizabethtown.

"We have money enough," he said, fumbling weakly in his pockets and
producing a roll of bills. "We will pay you every cent agreed upon. Why
don't you hasten? Do you wish to see me die here in your wretched hut?"

The man addressed promised to lose no time, and soon hurried out into
the night. He was not gone more than thirty minutes. Those waiting his
return heard hoofbeats, and the light shining from the open door of the
cabin fell on three horses as they stepped outside.

"It's fifty in advance and fifty when we reach Elizabethtown," he said,
as he sprang off. "I will not start till the first fifty is paid."

"Pay him the whole of it," said the wounded man, "and shoot him full of
lead if he fails to keep his part