em than Boca, had broken through their blundering
fusillade. He knew that Boca had taken a great risk--and that she must
have known it also. And she had taken that risk that he might win free.

Too stunned and shaken to reason it out to any definite conclusion,
Pete characteristically accepted the facts as they were as he thrust
aside all thought of right or wrong and gave himself over to tearless
mourning for that which Boca had been. That dead thing with dark,
staring eyes and faintly smiling lips was not Boca. But where was she
then?

Slowly the lamplight paled as dawn fought through the heavy shadows of
the room. The door swung open noiselessly. The Spider glanced in and
softly closed the door again.

The Spider, he of the shriveled heart and body, did the most human
thing he had done for years. At the little table opposite the bar he
sat with brandy and a glass and deliberately drank until he felt
neither the ache of his old wounds nor the sting of this fresh thrust
of fate. Then he knew that he was drunk, but that his keen, crooked
mind would obey his will, unfeelingly, yet with no hesitation and no
stumbling.

He rose and hobbled to the outer door. A vagrant breeze stirred the
stale air in the room. Back in the patio his Mexican, Manuelo, lay
snoring, wrapped in a tattered blanket. The Spider turned from the
doorway and gazed at the sanded spot on the floor, leaning against the
bar and drumming on its edge with his nervous fingers. "He'll see her
in every night-fire when he's alone--and he'll talk to her. He will
see her face among the girls in the halls--and he'll go cold and speak
her name, and then some girl will laugh. He will eat out his heart
thinking of her--and what she did for him. He's just a kid--but when
he comes out of that room . . . he won't give a damn if he's bumped off
or not. He'll play fast--and go through every time! God! I ought to
know!"

The Spider turned and gazed across the morning desert. Far out rode a
group of men. One of them led a riderless horse. The Spider's thin
lips twisted in a smile.

CHAPTER XXV

"PLANTED--OUT THERE"

Malvey, loafing at the ranch of Mescalero, received The Spider's
message about the posse with affected indifference. He had Pete's
horse in his possession, which in itself would make trouble should he
be seen. When he learned from the messenger that Young Pete was in
Showdown, he fumed and blustered until evening, when he