treating me fair--and I believe you mean to--come over to
my room a minute."

"No."

"Let me come to where you are?"

"No."

"Let me wait for you--anywhere?"

"No."

"Do you know me?"

"By sight."

"How did you know I was in town to-night?"

"I saw you get off the train."

"You were looking for me, then?"

"To deliver my message."

"Do you think that message means what it says?"

"I know it does."

"Do you know what it means for me to undertake?"

"I have a pretty stiff idea."

"Did you get it direct from the party who sent it?"

"I can't talk all night. Take it or leave it just where it is."

De Spain heard him close. He closed his own instrument and began
feverishly signalling central. "This is 101. Henry de Spain talking,"
he said briskly. "You just called me. Ten dollars for you, operator,
if you can locate that call, quick!"

There was a moment of delay at the central office, then the answer:
"It came from 234--Tenison's saloon."

"Give me your name, operator. Good. Now give me 22 as quick as the
Lord will let you, and ring the neck off the bell."

Lefever answered the call on number 22. The talk was quick and sharp.
Messengers were instantly pressed into service from the despatcher's
office. Telephone wires hummed, and every man available on the special
agent's force was brought into action. Livery-stables were covered,
the public resorts were put under observation, horsemen clattered up
and down the street. Within an incredibly short time the town was
rounded up, every outgoing trail watched, and search was under way for
any one from Morgan's Gap, and especially for the sender of the
telephone message.

De Spain, after instructing Lefever, hastened to Tenison's. His rapid
questioning of the few habitues of the place and the bartender
elicited only the information that a man had used the telephone booth
within a few minutes. Nobody knew him or, if they did know him,
refused to describe him in any but vague terms. He had come in by the
front door and slipped out probably by the rear door--at all events,
unnoticed by those questioned. By a series of eliminating inquiries,
de Spain made out only that the man was not a Morgan. Outside, Bob
Scott in the saddle waited with a led horse. The two men rode straight
and hard for the river bridge. They roused an old hunter who lived in
a near-by hut, on the town side, and asked whether any horseman had
crossed the bridge. The hunter admitted gr