the water was six inches deep. I went back into the bank. Eight or ten
feet in front of the safe was a high counter running straight across
the room. Under it was a waste-basket, a wooden box of old newspapers,
a spool-cabinet for legal papers, a copying-press, and some other
stuff.

I stood the can of powder in the waste-basket. It was a good fit, with
room enough around the outside to stuff in some paper to hide it. Then
I put the basket in the box of newspapers. I cut the fuse in two in
the middle, unscrewed the cover and put the ends of the two pieces
down in the powder, balancing the copying-press on top to hold them in
place. I covered the whole thing up with newspapers. Then I brought an
auger from Taggart's and bored a hole a little above the floor
through the side of the building, and right on through the side of the
building to the south, which stood so close that it almost touched the
bank. There was nothing to either except a one-inch board and a
thickness of lath and plastering. I passed the two lines of fuse
through the two holes, and into the other building, which was a drug
store. In the other building I tied a loose knot in the ends of the
fuse and left it lying on the floor behind the counter and covered
with a door-mat.

Ten minutes later I had my Indian ally posted on the platform of the
depot with his gun.

"If pony thieves come, shoot at them," I said to him. "I'll get up and
shoot at them too."

"All right, me shoot," he said; "take plenty scalp."

I went back to the drug store feeling better. There were now two
chances for defeating the outlaws if they came; to beat them off, or
blow them up with the powder. I lay down on the floor back of the
counter with my head on the door-mat. The windows were boarded up,
and I felt sure that even if they came they would never find me here.

I woke up three hours later, as I had that first night six months
before in the Headquarters House, with Pike hold of my ear, and a man
pushing a smoky lantern in my face.

CHAPTER XX

What the Outlaws do on their second Visit: with the awful Hours I pass
through, and how I find myself at the End.

The first thing I heard was a loud laugh, and then:

"How are you, Jud?" said Pike. "Back again, you see. Hope yer feeling
all right."

I saw I might as well make the best of it, though you may be sure I
was half scared to death.

"Yes, I'm feeling pretty well," I said. "I was able to be about the
last