d went out. Deveny
and Rogers, their thoughts centered upon the same person--Barbara
Morgan--sat silent, watching Lawson as he rode down the street toward the
point where the trail, crossing the broken stretch of country that
intervened, merged into the desert.

Half an hour later Laskar, holding his chest, where Purgatory had kicked
him, was sitting at the table in the rear room of the First Chance,
cursing with a fluency that he had not yielded to in many years.

"Dolver's wiped out!" he gasped hoarsely; "plugged so quick he didn't
know he was hit. A center shot--plumb in the heart; his own gun goin' off
while he was fallin'. I looked him over--after. He was croaked complete.
Then that sober-faced hyena lifts my gun--an' the rifle--an' says things
to me, which I don't try to cross him. Then he goes behind the
rock--where we was havin' it out--an' while he's gone I tries to git my
guns from under that devil-eyed cayuse of his'n.

"An' I don't succeed--noways. That black devil turns on a half-dollar an'
plants his hoofs plumb in my breast-bone. If I'd been an inch nearer, or
if he'd have kicked me a foot lower, or a foot higher, I'd be layin' out
there where Dolver is now, the coyotes an' the buzzards gnawin' at me."

Unmoved by Laskar's incoherence, Deveny calmly watched him. And now, when
Laskar paused for breath, Deveny spoke slowly:

"A _black_ horse, you said. How did a black horse get there? Old Morgan
rode a bay when he left Lamo--Balleau says."

"Did I say Morgan rode a black horse?" queried Laskar, knowledge in his
eyes that he had a thing to tell that would blanch their faces. He
grinned, still holding his chest, his glance malicious.

"Did I say a _black_ horse?" he repeated. "Did I say Morgan rode a black
horse? Morgan didn't. Morgan rode a bay--an' the Chief run it off after
he shot Morgan. But Morgan didn't die right away, an' the Chief he had to
slope, he said--an' he did--leavin' me an' Dolver to finish old Morgan.

"We was tryin' our damnedest when this guy on the black horse pops up out
of nowhere an' salivates Dolver."

"Who was it?"

This was Deveny. He was now leaning forward, a pout on his lips, watching
Laskar with an intent, glowering gaze.

"'Drag' Harlan!" shouted Laskar. His face lighted with a hideous joy as
he watched the effect of his news.

"'Drag' Harlan! Do you hear?" he went on. "'Drag' Harlan, the Pardo
'two-gun' man! He's headed toward Lamo. He bored Dolver, an' he said t