mercy, Glendin!

"From what I've heard, you ain't the man to talk of mercy, Mr. Drew."

The other, as if he had received a stunning blow, slipped into a chair
and buried his face in his hands. It was a long moment before he could
speak, and when his hands were lowered, Glendin winced at what he saw in
the other's face.

"God knows I'm not," said Drew.

"Suppose we let the shootin' of Calamity go. What of hoss-liftin',
sir?"

"Horse stealing? Impossible! Anthony--he could not be guilty of it!"

"Ask your man Duffy. Bard's ridin' Duffy's grey right now."

"But Duffy will press no claim," said the rancher eagerly. "I'll see to
that. I'll pay him ten times the value of his horse. Glendin, you can't
punish a man for a theft of which Duffy will not complain."

"Drew, you know what the boys on the range think of a hoss thief. It
ain't the price of what they steal; it's the low-down soul of the dog
that would steal it. It ain't the money. But what's a man without a hoss
on the range? Suppose his hoss is stole while he's hundred miles from
nowhere? What does it mean? You know; it means dyin' of thirst and goin'
through a hundred hells before the finish. I say shootin' a man is
nothin' compared with stealin' a hoss. A man that'll steal a hoss will
shoot his own brother; that's what he'll do. But I don't need to tell
you. You know it better'n me. What was it you done with your own hands
to Louis Borgen, the hoss-rustler, back ten years ago?"

A dead voice answered Glendin: "What has set you on the trail of Bard?"

"His own wrong doin'."

The rancher waved a hand of careless dismissal.

"I know you, Glendin," he said.

The deputy stirred in his chair, and then cleared his throat.

He said in a rising tone: "What d'you know?"

"I don't think you really care to hear it. To put it lightly, Glendin,
you've done many things for money. I don't accuse you of them. But if
you want to do one thing more, you can make more money at a stroke than
you've made in all the rest."

With all his soul the deputy was cursing Nash, but now the thing was
done, and he must see it through.

He rose glowering on Drew.

"I've stood a pile already from you; this is one beyond the limit.
Bribery ain't my way, Drew, no matter what I've done before."

"Is it war, then?"

And Glendin answered, forcing his tone into fierceness: "Anything you
want--any way you want it!"

"Glendin," said the other with a sudden lowering of his voice, "has