kind. Pity some one didn't
stamp you out before you brought that little girl down here to this sink
of perdition."

Harrison swallowed down his anger. "That's all right. I'll stand for it.
If I didn't believe it myself, you'd have a heluvatime getting away with
such talk. But it goes just as you lay it down. I'm a skunk and all the
rest of it. Now, listen! I ain't such a four-flusher as to lay down my
hand before I've played it out. See! I'm not through with Gabriel
Pasquale. Watch my smoke. Him and me hasn't come to a settlement yet."

"Sounds to me like whiskey talk," answered the Texan scornfully. "Men
who do the kind of things you have done don't have the guts to play out
a losing game."

"Some do, some don't. By your reputation you're game. All right. Keep
your eyes open, captain."

Snarling, the man turned away and walked down the street. Holcomb
watched him go. There was something purposeful in the way the
heavyweight moved. Perhaps, after all, he would make a fighting finish
of it. The captain fervently hoped he would drag old Pasquale down with
him before they wiped him off the map. But he knew the betting odds were
all the other way.

CHAPTER XXI

A STAGE PREPARED FOR TRAGEDY

Not knowing when his opportunity might come, Harrison kept his horse
saddled most of the time. He knew that extra mounted patrols were kept
at the ends of the streets and at other points on the mesa surrounding
the town, and that he would have to take a chance of being able to run
the gauntlet in safety. If luck favored him, he might win past these.
For one thing the Mexicans were very poor shots, a little the worst he
had ever seen. It might be, too, that he would have darkness in his
favor, though he could not count on this.

By Enrique he had sent to Governor Farrugia a map of the camp, giving
detailed information as to the number and position of the troops and
showing from what direction the camp could best be attacked. In his
letter he had urged immediate action, on the ground that a part of the
men were absent with Major Ochampa on a foraging expedition. If Farrugia
rose to the occasion, he hoped in the confusion of the assault to escape
with Ruth.

Meanwhile he waited, and the hours slipped away. It was now Friday
noon, and the wedding was to be Saturday morning.

Four denim-clad troopers and a sergeant marched raggedly down the street
and stopped in front of Harrison's adobe house.

"The general wishes to