eep
now because I have drugged him. I shall chloroform him before he
wakes. I should have no defense in the law-courts. Yes, it would be
murder."

He drew a step back from her as though from one suddenly gone mad.

"What are you operating for?" he demanded.

"For your blunder," she said simply. "And you are going to help me."

"Am I?" he jeered. "Not by a damned sight! If you think that I am
going to let myself in for that sort of thing . . ."

Until now he had not seen the gun in her hand. Her quick gesture
showed it to him.

"Charles Patten," she told him emphatically, "I am risking Mr. Norton's
life; I am therefore risking my own. Understand what that means.
Understand just what you have got to win or lose by to-night's work.
Consider that I pledge you my word not to implicate you in what you do;
that if worse came to worse, you could claim and I would admit that you
were forced at the point of a gun to do as I told you. Oh, I can shoot
straight! And finally, I will shoot straight, as God watches me,
rather than let you go now and stop what I have undertaken! Think of
it well, Charles Patten!"

Patten, being as weak of mind as he was pudgy of hand, having besides
that peculiar form of craft which is vouchsafed his type, furthermore
more or less of a coward, saw matters quite as Virginia wished him.
Together they awaited the coming of the dawn. The girl, realizing to
the uttermost what lay before her, forced herself to rest, lying still
under the stars, schooling herself to the steady-nerved action which
was to have its supreme test.

Just before the dawn they had coffee and a bite to eat from Norton's
little pack. Close to the drugged man they builded a rude low table by
dragging the squared blocks of fallen stone from their place by the
wall. Upon this Virginia placed the saddle-blankets, neatly folded.
Already Patten was showing signs of nervousness. Looking into her face
he saw that it was white and drawn but very calm. Patten was asking
himself countless questions, many of them impossible of answer yet.
She was closing her mind to everything but the one supreme matter.

He helped her give the chloroform when she told him that there was
sufficient light and that she was ready. He brought water, placed
instruments, stood by to do what she told him. His nervousness had
grown into fear; he started now and then, jerking about guiltily, as
though he foresaw an interruption.

Together they