John Burrill; "what do you mean, I say,
Roo-Roo-ney?"

"Burrill," said Bob Giles, setting down his glass and speaking in a low,
confidential tone; "what's this power you have over Heath? Don't you
know he's afraid of you?"

"He--he zer 'fraid er me! an' so he better be--him un--"

"And yet there are two or three of the fellows that say you are the one
that's afraid."

"Me afraid! I--John Bur--ll, f-fraid. Boys, look, en I'll jus' tell you
a s-secret. If I jus' opened my mouth, I could run that f-fellow out of
the country; fact!" and he nodded sagaciously again and again.

"Then there ain't no truth in that story that you are the one that's
afraid, and that you wouldn't dare go to Heath's office, not even if you
wanted a doctor?"

"T-truth? By gad, sir, show me the man that says so; show 'im to me! By
heavens, sir, I wouldn't be f-fraid to rout him up the d-darkest night
that ever blew, sir."

"Of course not, we don't doubt that, but--there's them do. I'll tell you
what it is, Burrill, the thing would be settled if you would just walk
up to the doctor's cottage, tell him you are sick somewhere, and bring
away a prescription; that _would_ settle it."

A murmur of approval went round the table. Not a man was there among
them who would not rejoice inwardly at the discomfiture of the arrogant,
would-be aristocrat, who, while he was less than their equal in many
things, had risen above them in fortune. He had reached that period of
drunkenness, and it took a vast quantity of stout liquor to bring him up
to it, where his voice began to grow hoarse, his ready tongue to trip,
his brain to be most completely muddled, and his legs to be most
unreliable instruments of locomotion. The men about the table nodded and
winked to each other, under his very nose.

"Egg him on, Rooney," whispered Giles, "let's have the fun out." And
they did.

Ere long, John Burrill, staggering under the additional cargo of drinks
imbibed as toasts to the undertaking, and again, as draughts of defiance
to the enemy who would dare question his courage, buttoned his coat
about him, and, boasting, cursing, and swaggering, reeled out into the
night. Out into the night that swallowed him up forever.

"Let's follow him," said one of the plotters, starting up as the door
closed behind him.

But this proposition met with no favor. The night was very dark, and the
wind blowing in fierce gusts; the saloon was warm and inviting, and
their victim had o