of traitors and hirelings! He had
bought and paid for them all! He had sunk two thousand dollars in the
"Express" and saved the editor from being horsewhipped and jailed for
libel! Half the cursed bonds that they were making such a blanked
fuss about were handled by these hypocrites--blank them! They were a
low-lived crew of thieves and deserters! It is presumed that the major
had forgotten himself in this infelicitous selection of epithets, but
the stranger's face only relaxed into a grim smile. More than that, the
major had apparently forgotten his desire to hear his guest talk, for he
himself at once launched into an elaborate exposition of his own affairs
and a specious and equally elaborate defense and justification of
himself and denunciation of his accusers. For nearly half an hour he
reviewed step by step and detail by detail the charges against him--with
plausible explanation and sophistical argument, but always with
a singular prolixity and reiteration that spoke of incessant
self-consciousness and self-abstraction. Of that dashing
self-sufficiency which had dazzled his friends and awed his enemies
there was no trace! At last, even the set smile of the degraded
recipient of these confidences darkened with a dull, bewildered disgust.
Then, to his relief, a step was heard without. The major's manner
instantly changed.

"Well?" he demanded impatiently, as Dawson entered.

"I came to know what you want done with HIM," said Dawson, indicating
the fugitive with a contemptuous finger.

"Take him to your cabin!"

"My cabin! HIM?" ejaculated Dawson, turning sharply on his chief.

The major's light eyes contracted and his thin lips became a straight
line. "I don't think you understand me, Dawson, and another time you'd
better wait until I'm done. I want you to take him to your cabin--and
then CLEAR OUT OF IT YOURSELF. You understand? I want him NEAR ME AND
ALONE!"

III.

Dawson was not astonished the next morning to see Major Overstone and
the half-breed walking together down the gully road, for he had already
come to the conclusion that the major was planning some extraordinary
reprisals against the invaders, that would ensure the perpetual security
of the camp. That he should use so insignificant and unimportant a tool
now appeared to him to be quite natural, particularly as the service
was probably one in which the man would be sacrificed. "The major," he
suggested to his companions, "ain't going to ris