hardened. "They'd better hope they don't find me,
some of 'em," he bragged.

"So had you," she said significantly.

He took her meaning instantly. The temper of Bear Cat was on edge for a
lynching. "Did they die, either o' those fellows I shot?" the bandit
demanded.

"Not yet."

"Fools, the pair of 'em. If that bank teller hadn't grabbed for his gun
we'd 'a' got away with it fine."

She looked at him with disgust, not untouched with self-scorn because she
had ever let him become an overpowering influence in her life. He could
no more help boasting than he could breathing.

"As it is, you've reached the end of your rope," the girl said steadily.

"Don't you think I'm at the end of a rope. I'm a long ways from there."

"And the men with you are gone."

"How gone? Did they get 'em?"

"Neither of them ever moved out of his tracks."

"When I heard the shootin' I figured it would be thataway," Houck said
callously.

She could see in him no evidence whatever of regret or remorse for what
he had done. This raid, she guessed, was of his planning. He had brought
the others into it, and they had paid the penalty of their folly. The
responsibility for their deaths lay at his door. He was not apparently
giving a thought to that.

"You can't stay here," she told him coldly. "You'll have to go."

"Go where? Can you get me a horse?"

"I won't," June answered.

"I got to have a horse, girl," he wheedled. "Can't travel without one."

"I don't care how far you travel or what becomes of you. I want you out
of here. That's all."

"You wouldn't want me shootin' up some o' yore friends, would you? Well,
then. If they find me here there'll be some funerals in Bear Cat. You can
bet heavy on that."

She spoke more confidently than she felt. "They can take care of
themselves. I won't have you here. I'll not protect you."

The outlaw's eyes narrowed to slits. "Throw me down, would you? Tell 'em
I'm here, mebbe?" His face was a menace, his voice a snarl.

June looked at him steadily, unafraid. "You needn't try to bully me. It's
not worth wasting your time."

To look at her was to know the truth of what she said, but he could not
help trying to dominate the girl, both because it was his nature and
because he needed so badly her help.

"Sho! You're not so goshalmighty. You're jes' June Tolliver. I'm the same
Jake Houck you once promised to marry. Don't forget that, girl. I took
you from that white-livered fellow you marr