time you were here, maybe you remember."

Pike scowled at me. "Yes, that's so, you was," he said. "You stood us
off in pretty good shape that time--you and the snow. We were fools
not to find out that you were all alone. But we app'inted an
investigating committee _this_ time, and we're onto your game. Just
excuse me, but I'll have to ask you to wear a little of Taggart's
jewelry while we tend to some important business."

He pulled out a pair of handcuffs and slipped one of them around my
wrist and shut it up so tight that it pressed into the flesh. Then he
led me in front of the counter, slipped the other cuff through a brace
under the front edge of the counter, and then clasped it around my
other wrist, leaving the short chain which connected the cuffs behind
the brace, so that I was a prisoner. He pushed up a chair and said:

"Set down and make yourself comfortable, Jud. I'll see if I can't find
a handful of buttons for you, and you can put 'em on the counter and
play checkers with your nose."

The men laughed at this, and Pike went on:

"We met your pardner out here, the dark-complected feller. He was
a-riding off our pinto that we left here by mistake last winter, with
our saddle and things, and a-leading your two broncs, so we just
stopped him and gathered 'em in, and I reckon they're _all_ our'n now,
_most_ of 'em, _anyhow_. And in consideration of our only shooting him
around the edges careful like, he give us some valuable information,
such as just where you was a-sleeping, Jud, and where we'd find the
blacksmith tools, and so forth. That's the way to get along with an
Injun and have everything all easy-going--shoot 'im, _very careful_,
around the edges."

Again they all laughed, and then went out the back door, which, I
noticed, had a small hole cut in it over the bolt big enough to let in
a man's hand. There were five of them, counting Pike. The windows were
boarded up and it was dark in the store, but as the door opened I saw
that it was quite light outside and that it was snowing.

[Illustration: PIKE HANDCUFFING ME IN THE DRUG STORE, MARCH NINETEENTH]

As I sat there in the dark unable to move and with the handcuffs
cutting into my wrists you may believe I was miserable enough. I
expected nothing short of being killed by the gang before they left. I
saw what a fool I had been to trust the scoundrelly Indian even as
much as I had. It was a little satisfaction, however, to know that he
had failed