fools reasoned with Trampas. But no earthly foot can
step between a man and his destiny. Trampas broke suddenly free.

"Your friends have saved your life," he rang out, with obscene epithets.
"I'll give you till sundown to leave town."

There was total silence instantly.

"Trampas," spoke the Virginian, "I don't want trouble with you."

"He never has wanted it," Trampas sneered to the bystanders. "He has
been dodging it five years. But I've got him coralled."

Some of the Trampas faction smiled.

"Trampas," said the Virginian again, "are yu' sure yu' really mean
that?"

The whiskey bottle flew through the air, hurled by Trampas, and crashed
through the saloon window behind the Virginian.

"That was surplusage, Trampas," said he, "if yu' mean the other."

"Get out by sundown, that's all," said Trampas. And wheeling, he went
out of the saloon by the rear, as he had entered.

"Gentlemen," said the Virginian, "I know you will all oblige me."

"Sure!" exclaimed the proprietor, heartily, "We'll see that everybody
lets this thing alone."

The Virginian gave a general nod to the company, and walked out into the
street.

"It's a turruble shame," sighed Scipio, "that he couldn't have postponed
it."

The Virginian walked in the open air with thoughts disturbed. "I am of
two minds about one thing," he said to himself uneasily.

Gossip ran in advance of him; but as he came by, the talk fell away
until he had passed. Then they looked after him, and their words again
rose audibly. Thus everywhere a little eddy of silence accompanied his
steps.

"It don't trouble him much," one said, having read nothing in the
Virginian's face.

"It may trouble his girl some," said another.

"She'll not know," said a third, "until it's over."

"He'll not tell her?"

"I wouldn't. It's no woman's business."

"Maybe that's so. Well, it would have suited me to have Trampas die
sooner."

"How would it suit you to have him live longer?" inquired a member of
the opposite faction, suspected of being himself a cattle thief.

"I could answer your question, if I had other folks' calves I wanted to
brand." This raised both a laugh and a silence.

Thus the town talked, filling in the time before sunset.

The Virginian, still walking aloof in the open air, paused at the edge
of the town. "I'd sooner have a sickness than be undecided this way,"
he said, and he looked up and down. Then a grim smile came at his own
expense. "I reckon it