hand. Lemme take your knife to sharpen this pencil with. When I asked
the sheriff for a stub of a pencil he took me at my word."

"Sure I'll let you have my knife," said the jailer sarcastically. "How
about my gun--want that, too?"

"Oh, come on, old-timer," pleaded Rathburn. "The lead in this pencil's
worn clean down into the wood."

"Hand it over here an' I'll sharpen it," said the jailer, drawing his
pocketknife.

Rathburn walked to the bars and held out the pencil. An amiable smile
played on his lips. "You'll have to excuse me," he said contritely. "I
forgot it wasn't jail etiquette to ask for a knife. But I ain't had
much experience in jail. Now according to his nibs, the sheriff, I'm
in to get pretty well acquainted with 'em, eh?"

He watched the jailer as he began sharpening the pencil.

"Speaking of knives, now," he continued in a confiding tone, "I got in
a ruckus down near the border once an' some gents started after me.
One of 'em got pretty close--close enough to take some skin off my
shoulder with a bullet. He just sort of compelled me to shoot back."

"I suppose you killed him," observed the jailer, pausing in his work
of sharpening the pencil.

"I ain't saying," replied Rathburn. "Anyways I had a hole-up down
there for a few days, an' as luck would have it, I had to put up with
a Mexican. All that Mex would do was argue that a knife was better
than a gun. He claimed it was sure and made no noise--those were his
hardest talking points, an' I'll be danged if there isn't something in
it.

"But what I was gettin' at is that I didn't have nothing to do, an'
that Mexican got me to practicing knife throwing. You know how slick
those fellows are at throwing a blade. Well, in the couple of weeks
that I hung aroun' there he coached me along till I could throw a
knife as good as he could. He thought it was great sport, teaching me
to throw a knife so good, that a way.

"Since I left down there I've sort of practiced that knife-throwing
business now and then, just for fun. Anyways I thought it was just for
fun. But now I see, jailer, that it was my luck protecting me.
Anything you learn is liable to prove handy some time. _Don't move an
inch or I'll let you have it!_"

Rathburn's hand snapped out of his shirt and up above his right
shoulder.

The man from the desert shuddered involuntarily as he saw the yellow
light from the lamp play fitfully upon a keen, white blade.

CHAPTER XII

AGAINST H