ll right, Russ! I give my word," he said, and deliberately walked to
the chair and fell into it, just as Morton came running up with his man.

"Put away your gun," I ordered them. "The game's up. Snecker and Wright
are dead. Sampson is my prisoner. He has my word he'll be protected.
It's for you to draw up papers with him. He'll divide all his property,
every last acre, every head of stock as you and Zimmer dictate. He gives
up all. Then he's free to leave the country, and he's never to return."

Chapter 14

THROUGH THE VALLEY

Sampson looked strangely at the great bloody blot on my breast and his
look made me conscious of a dark hurrying of my mind. Morton came
stamping up the steps with blunt queries, with anxious mien. When he saw
the front of me he halted, threw wide his arms.

"There come the girls!" suddenly exclaimed Sampson. "Morton, help me
drag Wright inside. They mustn't see him."

I was facing down the porch toward the court and corrals. Miss Sampson
and Sally had come in sight, were swiftly approaching, evidently
alarmed. Steele, no doubt, had remained out at the camp. I was watching
them, wondering what they would do and say presently, and then Sampson
and Johnson came to carry me indoors. They laid me on the couch in the
parlor where the girls used to be so often.

"Russ, you're pretty hard hit," said Sampson, bending over me, with his
hands at my breast. The room was bright with sunshine, yet the light
seemed to be fading.

"Reckon I am," I replied.

"I'm sorry. If only you could have told me sooner! Wright, damn him!
Always I've split over him!"

"But the last time, Sampson."

"Yes, and I came near driving you to kill me, too. Russ, you talked me
out of it. For Diane's sake! She'll be in here in a minute. This'll be
harder than facing a gun."

"Hard now. But it'll--turn out--O.K."

"Russ, will you do me a favor?" he asked, and he seemed shamefaced.

"Sure."

"Let Diane and Sally think Wright shot you. He's dead. It can't matter.
And you're hard hit. The girls are fond of you. If--if you go
under--Russ, the old side of my life is coming back. It's _been_ coming.
It'll be here just about when she enters this room. And by God, I'd
change places with you if I could."

"Glad you--said that, Sampson," I replied. "And sure--Wright plugged me.
It's our secret. I've a reason, too, not--that--it--matters--much--now."

The light was fading. I could not talk very well. I felt dumb, stra