t out'"

There was a quality in the command like frosty madness, which one
instinctively obeyed. The half-prostrate figure of the tenderfoot seemed
to dominate everything--men, earth, and air.

Mary had a glimpse of Galway drawing an automatic pistol from his pocket
when she dropped at Jack's side. She knew that Jack had not heard or seen
her approach. All his will was flowing out along a pistol's sight, even
as his blood was flowing out on the sand in a broadening circle of red.

It was well that she had come. Her fingers were splashed as she felt for
the artery, which she closed by leaning her whole weight on the thumb.

Ignacio had followed her and immediately after him came Firio, who had
been startled in his breakfast preparations by the sound of a shot and
had set out to investigate its cause. He was as changed as his master; a
twitching, fierce being, glaring at her and at the wound and then
prolongedly and watchfully at Pete Leddy.

"Can you shoot to kill?" Jack asked Galway, in a piercing summons.

"Yes," drawled Galway.

"Then up with your gun--quick! There! A bead on Ropey Smith!"

Galway had the bead before Ropey could protest.

"Give Ropey ten seconds to drop his gun or we will care for him at the
same time as Pete'" Jack concluded.

Ropey did not wait the ten seconds. He was over-prompt for the
same reasons of temperament that made Pete Leddy prefer his own
way of fighting.

"I take it that we can count on the neutrality of our spectators. They
cannot be interested in the success of either side," Jack observed, with
dry humor, but still methodically. "All they ask is a spectacle."

"Yes, you bet!" came a voice from the gallery, undisguisedly eager
to concur.

"Now, Pete and Ropey," Jack began, and broke off.

There was a poignant silence that waited on the processes of his mind.
Not only was there no sound, but to Mary there seemed no movement
anywhere in the world, except the pulse of the artery trying to drive its
flood past the barrier of her thumb. Jack kept his bead unremittingly on
Pete. It was Firio who broke the silence.

"Kill him! He is bad! He hates you!" said Firio.

"_Si, si_! If you do not kill him now, you must some time," said Ignacio.

Mary felt that even if Jack heard them he would not let their advice
influence him. On the bank before she had hastened to him a strange and
awful visitor in her heart had wished for Leddy's death. Now she wished
for him to go away unharm