nd Pete Leddy--do you know,
senorita?"

"The young man who came down from the pass with me, you mean?" she asked,
inwardly shamed at her simulation of casual curiosity.

"Yes, he and Leddy--bad blood between them'" said Ignacio. "You no know,
senorita? They fight at daybreak."

The pantomime in the store, Jack's form disappearing with its easy step
into the night, analyzed in the light of this news became the natural
climax of a series of events all under the spell of fatality.

"Come, Ignacio!" she said. "We must hurry!" And she started around the
house toward the street.

VII

WHAT HAPPENED AT LANG'S

While Jack had been playing the pioneer of rural free delivery in Little
Rivers, Pete Leddy, in the rear of Bill Lang's store, was refusing all
stimulants, but indulging in an unusually large cud of tobacco.

"Liquor ain't no help in drawing a bead," he explained to the loungers
who followed him through the door after Jack had gone.

If Pete did not want to drink it was not discreet to press him,
considering the mood he was in. The others took liberal doses, which
seemed only to heighten the detail of the drama which they had witnessed.
To Mary it had been all pantomime; to them it was dynamic with language.
It was something beyond any previous contemplation of possibility in
their cosmos.

The store had been enjoying an average evening. All present were
expressing their undaunted faith in the invincibility of James J.
Jeffries, when a smiling stranger appeared in the doorway. He was dressed
like a regular cowboy dude. His like might have appeared on the stage,
but had never been known to get off a Pullman in Arizona. And the instant
he appeared, up flashed Pete Leddy's revolver.

The gang had often discussed when and how Pete would get his seventh
victim, and here they were about to be witnesses of the deed. Instinct
taught them the proper conduct on such occasions. The tenderfoot was as
good as dead; but, being a tenderfoot and naturally a bad shot and prone
to excitement, he might draw and fire wild. They ducked with the avidity
of woodchucks into their holes--all except Jim Galway, who remained
leaning against the counter.

"I gin ye warning!" they heard Pete say, and closed their eyes
involuntarily--all except Jim Galway--with their last impression the
tenderfoot's ingenuous smile and the gleam on Pete's gun-barrel. They
waited for the report, as Mary had, and then they heard steps and looked