he dump is awake and he'll
hear. He's in his room; there's nobody else around. I wanted to tell
you that I'm going to knock him silly and get you out of this!"

"Why?" mocked Sanderson, lowly.

Owen's face grew redder. "Oh, I know I've got something coming, but
I'm going to get you out all the same. I've got our horses and guns.
Be ready!"

He slipped down. Sanderson could hear his feet thud faintly on the
sand outside.

Sanderson got into his clothes and stood at the cell door, waiting.
For a long time he heard no sound, but presently he caught the clank of
a door, followed by a swift step, and Owen stood in the corridor before
the cell door, a bunch of keys in his hand.

There was no word spoken. Owen unlocked the door, Sanderson slipped
out, Owen passed him the six-shooter he had lost in the barroom of the
Okar Hotel, and the two slipped noiselessly down the corridor.

A minute later they were mounting the horses that Owen had brought, and
shortly afterward they were moving like shadows away from the outskirts
of Okar.

Not until they were well out in the big basin did either of them speak.
And then Sanderson said, shortly:

"Silverthorn was tellin' me you gassed everything. Are you feelin'
better over it?"

Owen's head bent over his horse's mane; his chin was on his chest when
he answered:

"Come and kill me."

"Hell!" exploded Sanderson, disgustedly. "If there was anything comin'
to you killin' would be too good for you. You ain't done anything to
me, you sufferin' fool--not a thing! What you've done you've done to
Mary Bransford. When you see Dale an' Silverthorn grabbin' the Double
A, an' Mary Bransford ridin' away, homeless--you'll have feelin's of
remorse, mebbe--if you've got any man in you at all!"

Owen writhed and groaned.

"It was the whisky--the cursed whisky!" he whispered. "I can't let it
alone--I love it! And once I get a taste of it, I'm gone---I'm a
stark, staring lunatic!"

"I'd swear to that," grimly agreed Sanderson.

"I didn't mean to say a word to anybody," wailed the little man. "Do
you think I'd do anything to harm Mary Bransford--after what she did
for me? But I did--I must have done it. Dale said I did, Silverthorn
said I did, and you say I did. But I don't remember. Silverthorn said
I signed a receipt for some money from the Okar bank--three thousand,
odd. I don't remember. Oh, but I'm--"

"Calling yourself names won't get you back to where you was