counting?" he asked of Tex in anxious inquiry. "And for God's
sake, who stepped on your face?"

Tex made no reply, for his astonishment at the interruption had given way
to the iron hand of fear which gripped him almost to suffocation. In
the space of one breath he had been hurled from the mastery to defeat;
from a good fighting chance, with all the odds on his side, to what
he believed to be certain death, for to move was to die. Had it been
anyone but The Orphan who had turned the scale he would have hazarded a
shot and trusted to luck, for his gun was in his hand; but The Orphan's
gunplay was as swift as light and never missed at that distance, and
The Orphan's reputation was a host in itself. He had threatened the
sheriff with death, he had used Bill worse than he would have used a
dog, and now his cup of bitterness was full to overflowing. Above him a
pair of cruel gray eyes looked over a sight into his very soul and a
malevolent grin played about the thin, straight lips of the man who
had killed Jimmy, who had led his five friends to an awful death, and
who had instilled terror night after night into the hearts of seven good
men. His mind leaped back to a day ten years before, and what he saw
caused his face to blanch. Ten years of immunity, but at last he was to
pay for his crime. Before him stood the son of the man he had been
foremost in hanging, before him stood the man he had cruelly wronged.
His nerve left him and he stood a broken, trembling coward, a living lie
to the occupation he had made his own, an insult to his dress and his
companions. Had he by some miracle been given the drop he could not
have pulled the trigger. He now had no hope for mercy where he had
denied it. He had played a good hand, but he had made no allowance for
the joker, and no blame to him.

No sooner had The Orphan spoken and the sheriff discovered that he had
things safely in his hands, than Shields had leaped to the ground and
quickly disarmed his opponents, tossing the captured weapons to the top
of the bank near the outlaw. Then he folded his arms and waited, laughing
silently all the while.

As soon as Shields had disposed of the last gun, The Orphan gave his whole
attention to the man who was guarding Bill, and that person changed the
course of his hand just in time.

"No, I wouldn't try to use that gun, neither, if I was you," The Orphan
said, still smiling. "You can just toss it up on the bank over your
head--that's righ