inst you, pardner?"

A flicker of a smile was discernible somewhere in the tangle of beard
that hid the lineaments of the prisoner's face.

"If I inventoried the contents of this bundle," continued Lowell, "I'd
find a pretty complete outfit of the tools that keep the safe companies
working overtime on replacements, wouldn't I?"

The prisoner nodded.

"There's no use of my dodgin', judge," he said. "The tools are
there--all of 'em. But I'm through with the game. All I want now is
enough of a stake to get me back home to Omaha, where the family is.
That's why I was footin' it acrost this Injun country--takin' a short
cut to a railroad where I wouldn't be watched for."

"I'll consider your case awhile," remarked Lowell after a moment's
thought. "Perhaps we can speed you on your way to Omaha and the family."

The prisoner was taken back to the agency jail leaving his bundle on
Lowell's desk. About midnight Lowell took the bundle and, going to the
jail, roused the policeman who was on guard and was admitted to the
prisoner's cell.

"Look here, Red," said Lowell. "Your name is Red, isn't it?"

"Red Egan."

"Well, Red Egan, did you ever hear of Jimmy Valentine?"

The prisoner scratched his head while he puffed at a welcome cigarette.

"No? Well, Red, this Jimmy Valentine was in the business you're
quitting, and he opened a safe in a good cause. I want you to do the
same for me. If you can do a neat job, with no noise, I'll see that you
get across the reservation all right, with stake enough to get you to
Omaha."

"You're on, judge! I'd crack one more for a good scout like you any
day."

Three quarters of an hour later Red Egan was working professionally upon
the safe in Bill Talpers's store. The door to Talpers's sleeping-room
was not far away, but it was closed, and the trader was a thorough
sleeper, so the cracksman might have been conducting operations a mile
distant, so far as interruption from Bill was concerned.

As he worked, Red Egan told whispered stories to a companion--stories
which related to barriers burned, pried, and blown away.

"I don't mind how close they sleep to their junk," observed Red, as he
rested momentarily from his labors. "Unless a man's got insomnier and
insists on makin' his bed on top of his safe, he ain't got a chance to
make his iron doors stay shut if one of the real good 'uns takes a
notion to make 'em fly apart. There she goes!" he added a moment later,
as the safe door sw