o a brisk trot.

In half a minute they drew up in the shadow of a great overhanging
tree.

Jim was promptly assisted to the ground by the waiting men, for he was
bound hand and foot. Now his bonds were removed, and immediately he
stepped forward to where Smallbones had just succeeded in throwing his
rope into position overhead, and was testing it with his own weight.

As the prisoner came up he turned, and a malicious sparkle shone in
his eyes as he confronted the calm face.

"It'll bear my weight?" Jim inquired, coldly. "It wouldn't be pleasant
to go through it twice." He glanced up at the tree as though
interested.

"It's built fer ropin' 'outlaws,'" Smallbones grinned. "I sure don't
guess a low-down skunk of a murderer'll----"

But the man never finished his sentence. Doc Crombie had him by the
throat in a clutch that threatened to add another and more welcome
crime to the records.

"Another word from your lousy tongue an' I'll strangle you!" roared
the doctor, venting at last all the pent-up wrath gathered on the
journey out.

But Jim was impatient. He remembered those two toiling figures
behind.

"Let up, Doc," he said sharply. "His words don't hurt. Let's finish
things."

The doctor's hand fell from the man's throat and he drew back.

"Fix the ropes," he said shortly.

In silence four of the men advanced, while the evil eyes of Smallbones
savagely glowered at the doctor. In a few moments Jim's arms were
pinioned, and his ankles bound fast. Then the rope was loosely thrown
about his neck. And after that a man advanced with a large silk
handkerchief, already folded, and with which to blindfold him.

But suddenly the doctor bethought him of something.

"Wait!" he cried. Then he addressed himself directly to the condemned
man. "Jim Thorpe, you sure got friends present. You sure got friends
ready to hear anything you got to tell. You're goin' out o' this world
right now, actin' a lie if not speakin' one. Ther' are folks among us
dead sure, or I wouldn't say it. Mebbe you ain't thought that if this
thing is done, an' what I suspicion is true, you're makin' murderers
of us all--an' in pertickler Smallbones. Say, you got your chance.
Speak."

The men round the tree stood hushed in awe, waiting. There was not a
sound to break the stillness except the soft rustle of the trees in
the morning breeze.

"I have told you all, I am innocent," Jim said firmly. Then he
shrugged. "Guess you must take your own