e said, continuing his narrative: "I'm coming to the worst part
of all. You'll all wonder I've not gone mad--brooding; but I've got to
go through with it. When I settled down here I honestly did struggle
hard to live down my past and start afresh with a clean sheet. I
borrowed some money from an old ex-sheriff friend of mine in
Montana--which loan, by the way, I have paid all back--every cent--and
bought"--he gazed gloomily at Kilbride--"what was my home. But
somehow . . . Fate seems to have dogged me and tripped me up in the end.
Until last January everything was going well with me. As Slavin and
Yorke here can testify . . . I was conducting myself fairly and squarely
with all men.

"Then--one day Yorke brought that Blake and Moran case up in front of me.
Both of these men I'd met before, but they didn't recognize me again--not
absolutely. I usually contrived to keep pretty clear of them for reasons
which will appear obvious later. I'm coming to that. Moran I recognised
as a former Montana tough who used to hang around Havre--bronco-buster,
cow-puncher, and tin-horn by turns. Many a time I've caught him sizing
me up, in Cow Run and elsewhere--mighty hard, too, but he never seemed to
be sure of me. Once he did chance a feeler, but I just twirled my
moustache, a la Lord Tomnoddy, and bluffed him to a finish.

"Larry Blake"--a ruthless gleam flickered momentarily in Gully's
deep-set, shadowy eyes--"Larry Blake, I recognized as the son of the
Governor of Barmsworth Prison--old Gavin Blake. Sometimes this young
fellow used to come around with his father, when the old gentleman was
making his daily tour of inspection. I well remember the first time I
saw him--young Larry. I was chipping stone in the quarry, amongst a
gang, with a ball and chain on. I'd been in about two months then. The
Governor was showing some visitors around, and his son was with him.
They were staring at us like people do at wild animals in a show. I was
pointed out to them, and my recent crime mentioned. I remember young
Blake eying me with especial interest. He came out to Canada and hit
these parts about two years after I'd located here.

"Well! now and again when we'd run across each other I'd find him looking
at me in a queer, vague fashion, too; but I felt safe enough with him;
like I did with Moran--until this case came up. After it was over, he
and I happened to be alone, and, in a round-about way, he began asking me
question