a man at a card table in the rear
of the Top Notch Saloon.

The man conversed easily, but it was noticeable that he watched Texas
with cat-like vigilance, and that he poured his whiskey with his left
hand.

Ordinarily Texas would have noticed this departure from the polite
rules, but laboring under the excitement that his new determination
brought him he was careless. For he had planned his regeneration, and
his talk with the man was the beginning.

"You lifted the express box at Socorro, Buck!" said Texas, so earnestly
that the table trembled.

Buck Reible, gambler, outlaw, murderer, pushed back his broad-brimmed
hat with his hand--always he used his left--and gazed with level,
menacing eyes at Texas. His lips parted with a half-sneer.

"If a man does a job nowadays, there's always some one wants in on it!"
he declared, voicing his suspicion of Rankin's motive in bringing up the
subject. "Because you was lucky in bein' close when the game come off is
the reason you want a share of the cash," he added satirically. "How
much----"

"Go easy, Buck," said Texas. "I ain't no angel, but I never played your
style. I ain't askin' for a share."

"Then what in----"

"It's a new deal," declared Texas heavily. "A square deal. You took five
thousand dollars out of Socorro, an' you salivated the agent doin' it.
Jim Webster thought it was me, an' I was invited to a farewell
performance in which I done the starrin'. Some night-prowler saw me
down near the station just before you made your grand entree, an'----"

"Serves you right for spoonin' with a female so close to where gentlemen
has business," said Buck. "I saw her when you come toward me shootin'."

"An' what makes it more aggravatin'," continued Texas, unmoved by the
interruption; "is that the lady was Jim Webster's daughter, an' we was
thinkin' of gettin' married. But we didn't want Jim to know just then,
an' she told me to keep mum, seein' that Jim was opposed. She said we'd
keep it secret until----"

"I admire the lady's choice," said Buck, sneering ironically.

"----until I braced up an' was a man again," went on Texas, with
bull-dog persistency.

"Then you wasn't thinkin' of gettin' married soon," slurred Buck.

"I reckon we was," returned Texas coldly; "that's why I came here. I'm
goin' to take that five thousand back to Socorro with me!"

And now Buck used his right hand. But quick as he was, he was late.
Rankin's gun gaped at him across the table the w