ut on the hurrying landscape. At noon he
got off the train and entered an eating-house across from the station.
When he again took his seat in the smoker he happened to glance out.
On the platform was a square-built, sombrero'd gentleman, his back to
the coach and talking to an acquaintance. There was something familiar
in the set of those shoulders. The Spider leaned forward that he might
catch a glimpse of the man's face. Satisfied as to the other's
identity, he leaned back in his seat and puffed his cigar. The Spider
made no attempt to keep from sight. The square-shouldered man was the
town marshal of Hermanas. As the train pulled out, the marshal turned
and all but glanced up when the brakeman, swinging to the steps of the
smoker, reached out and playfully slapped him on the shoulder. The car
slid past. The Spider settled himself in his seat.

With the superstition of the gambler he believed that he would find an
enemy in the third person to recognize him, and with a gambler's stolid
acceptance of the inevitable he relaxed and allowed himself to plan for
the immediate future. On Pete's actual condition would depend what
should be done. The Spider drew a newspaper clipping from his pocket.
The El Paso paper stated that there was one chance in a thousand of
Pete recovering. The paper also stated that there had been money
involved--a considerable sum in gold--which had not been found. The
entire affair was more or less of a mystery. It was hinted that the
money might not have been honestly come by in the first place,
and--sententiously--that crime breeds crime, in proof of which, the
article went on to say; "the man who had been shot by the police was
none other than Pete Annersley, notorious as a gunman in the service of
the even more notorious Jim Ewell, of Showdown, or 'The Spider,' as he
was known to his associates." Followed a garbled account of the raid
on the Annersley homestead and the later circumstance of the shooting
of Gary, all of which, concluded the item, spoke for itself.

"More than Pete had a chance to do," soliloquized The Spider. "They
got the kid chalked up as a crook--and he's as straight as a die." And
strangely enough this thought seemed to please The Spider.

Shouldering through the crowd at the El Paso station, The Spider rubbed
against a well-dressed, portly Mexican who half-turned, showed surprise
as he saw the back of a figure which seemed familiar--the bowed legs
and pec