rds."

Trimmer puffed great lungfuls of the reek from his weed and took his
revolver in hand.

"Opal," said he, enjoying his moment of vantage, "you done me up for a
clean one thousand bucks, a year ago--while I was drunk--and I've been
laying to git you ever since."

McCoppet was unmoved.

"Well, here I am."

"You bet! here you are--and here you're goin' to hang out till we fix
things _right_!" The lumberman banged his gun barrel on the table hard
enough to make a dent. "That's why Cayuse is here, too. Mrs. Cayuse
is dead."

The gambler nodded coldly, and Trimmer went on.

"She kicked the bucket havin' a kid which wasn't Cayuse's--too darn
white fer even him--and Cayuse is on the war trail fer that father."

McCoppet threw away his chewed cigar and replaced it with a fresh one.
He nodded as before.

"Cayuse is on that I know who the father was," resumed the visitor. "I
told him to come here to Goldite and I'd give up the name."

He began to consume his cigar once more by inches and watched the
effect of his words. There was no visible effect. McCoppet had never
been calmer in his life--outwardly. Inwardly he had never felt Dearer
to death, and his own kind of fright was upon him.

"Well," he said, "your aces look good to me. What do you want--how
much?"

"I ought to hand you over to Cayuse--good riddance to the whole
country," answered Trimmer, with rare perspicacity of judgment. "You
bet you're goin' to pay."

"If you want your thousand back, why don't you say so?" inquired the
gambler quietly. "I'll make it fifteen hundred. That's pretty good
interest, I reckon."

"Your reckoner's run down," Trimmer assured him. "I want ten thousand
dollars to steer Cayuse away."

McCoppet slowly shook his head. "You ain't a hog, Larry, you're a
Rockyfeller. Five thousand, cash on the nail, if you show me you can
steer Cayuse so far off the trail he'll never get on it again."

Five thousand dollars was a great deal of money to Trimmer. Ten
thousand was far in excess of his real expectations. But he saw that
his power was large. He was brutally frank.

"Nope, can't do it, Opal, not even fer a friend," and he grinned.
"I've got you in the door and I'm goin' to jamb you hard. Five
thousand ain't enough."

Things had been going against the gambler for nearly an hour. He had
been acutely alarmed by the presence of Cayuse in the camp. His mind,
like a ferret in a trap, was seeking wildly for a l