He looked past
Eagen to Doane. Then he tossed the sack on the table.

"Here's the money I took this morning, Doane," he said in matter-of-fact
tones. "I came here to turn it over to you."

With bulging eyes Doane stared at him.

Eagen laughed loudly. "That's rich! Tryin' to make me think you was
goin' to give it _all_ to him? Don't you figure, Mr. Coyote, that I
can throw my rope aroun' a simple scheme like you an' that shivering
rat over by the table cooked up? That's why you turned down my little
proposition last night. It was this same deal--only, _me_, an' Doane
there was goin' to put it over. You figured I'd cut you out of your
divvy, an' you figured right; he suspected I might double cross him,
an' maybe he was right, too. So he cooked it up with you to pull the
robbery, thinkin' you'd be more likely to go through an' give him his
end. But the pair of you figured too many points when you thought I
wouldn't catch on."

"That was what your proposition was to be, was it?" asked Rathburn
pleasantly. "Rob the bank? Why, I didn't need a gang to rob the bank,
Eagen, an' I didn't have anybody in with me. The trouble with you is
that you've got too much imagination."

The drawl in which Rathburn concluded his speech drove Eagen to a
frenzy.

"You lie, Rathburn!"

Rathburn smiled. "I might as well tell you that I intended to get away
with that money that's on the table, Eagen. That's what I took it for.
I'm making this little statement because something's liable to happen
to one, or both of us. I didn't know Doane was cashier of the bank
when I took it. I only recently learned that fact. Then I brought it
back to turn over to him, not so much on his account as on account of
Miss Mallory. I understand Doane is a very good friend of Miss
Mallory. I wouldn't want his bank hurt for that reason."

It was Laura Mallory who cried out at this. She walked toward
Rathburn, although he did not look at her.

"Why did you do it, Roger?" she asked in a trembling voice.

"I can't tell you _that_, ma'am," he said.

"But I know!" she cried. "I've guessed it. You saw Mr. Doane and me
together in Hope to-day and remembered he was at the ranch last night,
and----"

"Don't say any more, Laura!" Rathburn commanded sternly.

"Be still, daughter; it's best," said Mallory.

"Neither she, nor you, nor Doane, nor all of you together can talk me
out of it!" roared Eagen. "It was a frame-up!"

In the deadly stillness that followed,