usual method of release, was shying away from the man
who was trying in his frenzied haste to mount on the wrong side. As
Coogan hopped about with muttered oaths, trying to secure an effectual
footing, a dark, slender figure seemed to rise out of the ground at his
side. Douglass caught the blue gleam of polished steel in the moonlight
just above Coogan's neck, heard the soft thud of a well-driven blow; he
gave a great cry of warning but it fell upon unheeding ears. The man,
releasing his hold upon the horse, staggered blindly about, thrusting
savagely at random, a queer bubbling cry welling from his lips. Again
and again as the stricken giant reeled tottering about, came that
snake-like glide and merciless thrust until finally, his veins drained
of their vital flood, Coogan fell on his face in the crimsoned snow.

And then above the rush of hurrying feet, above the cries of blasphemous
wonder and alarm as the Palace vomited out its raucous filth, there
arose a cackling horror that Douglass would never forget as long as he
lived, the vacuous gibbering of Dolores Ysobel de Tejada, kissing her
blood-stained _cuchilla_ and screaming weird endearments to two dead men
in Jalisco.

Don Luis Garcia, a little giddy and tremulous from the effects of that
awful blow, wept remorsefully on the neck of McVey, who promptly
suggested vinous consolation. "_Ay de mi!_" he wailed, "why deed I heem
not keel so when that I the chance haddest! Now there will not the
hangin' be, and Senorita de Tejada--Ah, _pobre nina!_ She is what you
call heem 'off-the-nut.' It is to weep--she of the ver' firs' familee
was, and now--_Es muy lastima!_ Eet iss too damn bad!"

Red assented dolorously. "An' Matlock got away, too! Senor, it are shore
hell!" Then, remembering, he turned sharply aside so that the other
could not see the dull flush on his cheek as Conscience slapped him in
the face.

By the advice of Mr. Brewster, the lawyer, Douglass and McVey returned
to the jail and reincarcerated themselves therein. The entrapped
Mexicans were released with a series of warnings, so effectively phrased
by the Lazy K cowpuncher in charge of them, coupled by a few emphasizing
kicks impartially administered by him to each by way of self-consolation
for his having missed all the fun, that they took their permanent
departure for parts unknown without standing on the order of their
going. The turnkey, for obvious reasons, was only too glad to keep his
own counsel.