s from a prince's vest,
The warm rose-leaf from a maiden's breast
(O long he bideth, the Grand Seigneur!)."

They had gone scarce a mile farther when Pierre, chancing to turn round,
saw a horseman riding hard after them. They drew up, and soon the man--a
Rider of the Plains--was beside them. He had stopped at Throng's to find
Halby, and had followed them. Murder had been committed near the border,
and Halby was needed at once. Halby stood still, numb with distress, for
there was Lydia. He turned to Pierre in dismay. Pierre's face lighted
up with the spirit of fresh adventure. Desperate enterprises roused him;
the impossible had a charm for him.

"I will go to Fort O'Battle," he said. "Give me another pistol."

"You cannot do it alone," said Halby, hope, however, in his voice.

"I will do it, or it will do me, voila!" Pierre replied. Halby passed
over a pistol.

"I'll never forget it, on my honour, if you do it," he said.

Pierre mounted his horse and said, as if a thought had struck him: "If I
stand for the law in this, will you stand against it some time for me?"

Halby hesitated, then said, holding out his hand, "Yes, if it's nothing
dirty."

Pierre smiled. "Clean tit for clean tat," he said, touching Halby's
fingers, and then, with a gesture and an au revoir, put his horse to the
canter, and soon a surf of snow was rising at two points on the prairie,
as the Law trailed south and east.

That night Pierre camped in the Jim-a-long-Jo, finding there firewood in
plenty, and Tophet was made comfortable in the lean-to. Within another
thirty hours he was hid in the woods behind Fort O'Battle, having
travelled nearly all night. He saw the dawn break and the beginning of
sunrise as he watched the Fort, growing every moment colder, while his
horse trembled and whinnied softly, suffering also. At last he gave a
little grunt of satisfaction, for he saw two men come out of the Fort
and go to the corral. He hesitated a minute longer, then said: "I'll not
wait," patted his horse's neck, pulled the blanket closer round him, and
started for the Fort. He entered the yard--it was empty. He went to the
door of the Fort, opened it, entered, shut it, locked it softly, and put
the key in his pocket. Then he passed through into a room at the end of
the small hallway. Three men rose from seats by the fire as he did so,
and one said: "Hullo, who're you?" Another added: "It's Pretty Pierre."

Pierre looked at the ta