m him, he felt, forever. There was no power in his arms to
take that part of her which he wanted; he had no craft which could
encompass her.

Big George, stealing into the room, wondered at the lithe, slender form
of the man in the bed. Seeing him thus, it seemed that with the power of
one hand, George could crush him. But George would as soon have closed
his fingers over a rattler. He slipped away into the kitchen and sat
with his arms wrapped around his body, as frightened as though he had
seen a ghost.

But Donnegan lay on the bed without moving for hours and hours, until
big George, who sat wakeful and terrified all that time, was sure that
he slept. Then he stole in and covered Donnegan with a blanket, for it
was the chill, gray time of the night.

But Donnegan was not asleep, and when George rose in the morning, he
found the master sitting at the table with his arms folded tightly
across his breast and his eyes burning into vacancy.

He spent the day in that chair.

It was the middle of the afternoon when George came with a scared face
and a message that a "gen'leman who looks riled, sir," wanted to see
him. There was no answer, and George perforce took the silence as
acquiescence. So he opened the door and announced: "Mr. Lester to see
you, sir."

Into the fiery haze of Donnegan's vision stepped a raw-boned fellow with
sandy hair and a disagreeably strong jaw.

"You're the gent that's here with the colonel, ain't you?" said Lester.

Donnegan did not reply.

"You're the gent that cleaned up on Landis, ain't you?" continued the
sandy-haired man.

There was still the same silence, and Lester burst out: "It don't work,
Donnegan. You've showed you're man-sized several ways since you been in
The Corner. Now I come to tell you to get out from under Colonel Macon.
Why? Because he's crooked, because we know he's crooked; because he
played crooked with me. You hear me talk?"

Still Donnegan considered him without a word.

"We're goin' to run him out, Donnegan. We want you on our side if we can
get you; if we can't get you, then we'll run you out along with the
colonel."

He began to talk with difficulty, as though Donnegan's stare unnerved
him. He even took a step back toward the door.

"You can't bluff me out, Donnegan. I ain't alone. They's others behind
me. I don't need to name no names. Here's another thing: you ain't alone
yourself. You got a woman and a cripple on your hands. Now, Donnegan,
you're