in the policeman's uniform that he
wore to the dance. Isn't that queer? If I were you I'd very quietly find
out whether he went home to get that key after he got word that the bank
was robbed. He was still in the ballroom when he got the message."

"You think it's a put-up job? Why?"

"There is something not just right about the man Lake. His mind is too
ballbearing altogether. He herds those chumps in there round like so
many sheep. He used 'em to make discoveries with and then showed 'em how
to force 'em on him. Oh, they made a heap of progress! They've got
evidence enough up in there to hang John the Baptist, with Lake all the
time setting back in the breeching like a balky horse. It's Lake's bank,
and the bank's got burglar insurance. Got that? If he gets the money and
the insurance, too--see? And I happen to know he has been bucking the
market. I dropped a roll with him myself. Then there's r-r-revenge!--as
they say on the stage--and something else beside. Has Lake any bitter
enemies?"

"Oodles of 'em!"

"But one worse than the others--one he hates most?"

Jimmy thought for a while. Then he nodded.

"Jeff Bransford, I reckon."

"Is he in town?"

"Not that I know of."

"Well, I never heard of your Mr. Bransford; but he's in town all right,
all right! You'll see! Lake's got a case cooked up that'll hang some one
higher than Haman; and I'll bet the first six years of my life against a
Doctor Cook lecture ticket that the first letter of some one's name is
Jeff Bransford."

"Maybe Jeff can prove he was somewhere else?" suggested Jimmy.

Billy evaded the issue.

"What sort of a man is this Bransford? Any good? Besides being an enemy
of Lake's, I mean?"

"Mr. Bransford is one whom we all delight to humor," announced the
deputy, after some reflection.

"Friend of yours?"

Jimmy reflected again.

"We-ll--yes!" he said. "He limps a little in cold weather, and I got a
little small ditch plowed in my skull--but our horses was both young and
wild, and the boys rode in between us before there was any harm done. I
pulled him out of the Pecos since that, too, and poured some several
barrels of water out o' him. Yes, we're good friends, I reckon."

"He'll shoot back on proper occasion, then? A good sport? Stand the
gaff?"

"On proper occasion," rejoined Jimmy, "the other man will shoot back--if
he's lucky. Yes, sir, Jeff's certainly one dead game sport at any turn
in the road."

"Considering the source an