l ran into the very marrow of
Richard Travis and brought his gun down with an oath on his lips as
he said pitifully--"I am poisoned--it is that!"

The crowd shouted and urged him to shoot, but he sat shaking to his
very soul. And when it passed there came the old half humorous, half
bitter, cynical laugh as he said: "Alice--Alice a widow--"

It passed, and again there leaped into his eyes the great light Jud
Carpenter had seen there that morning, and slipping the cartridges
out of the barrel's breech, he looked up peacefully with the halo of
a holy light around his eyes as he said: "Oh, God, and I thank
Thee--for this--this touch again! Hold the little spark in my
heart--hold it, oh, God, but for a little while till the temptation
is gone, and I shall rest--I shall rest."

"Shoot--Richard Travis--why the devil don't you shoot?" they shouted.

He raised his rifle again, this time with a flourish which made some
of the mob think he was taking unnecessary risk to attract the
attention of the grim blacksmith who stood, pistol in hand, his
piercing eyes scanning the crowd. He stood by the side of Tom Travis,
his bodyguard to the last.

"Jack--Jack--" kept whispering to him the old preacher, "don't shoot
till you're obleeged to,--maybe God'll open a way, maybe you won't
have to spill blood. 'Vengeance is mine,' saith the Lord."

Jack smiled. It was a strange smile--of joy, in the risking glory of
the old life--the glory of blood-letting, of killing, of death. And
sorrow--sorrow in the new.

"Stand pat, stand pat, Bishop," he said; "you all know the trade. Let
me who have defied the law so long, let me now stand for it--die for
it. It's my atonement--ain't that the word? Ain't that what you said
about that there Jesus Christ, the man you said wouldn't flicker even
on the Cross, an' wouldn't let us flicker if we loved Him--Hol' him
to His promise, now, Bishop. It's time for us to stand pat. No--I'll
not shoot unless I see some on 'em makin' a too hasty movement of
gun-arm toward Cap'n--"

Had Richard Travis looked from his horse down into the crowd he had
seen another sight. Man can think and do but one thing at a time, but
oh, the myrmidons of God's legions of Cause and Effect!

Below him stood a boy, his face white in the terrible tragedy of his
determination. And as Richard Travis threw up his empty rifle, the
octagonal barrel of the pistol in the boy's hand leaped up and came
straight to the line of Richard Travi