than those big gents were. And you
know what I told you about mourners chirking up, after the first blow!
I figure it's the same way in the bank case. They have given up the idea
of getting the money back. They're still sad when they think about it,
but they keep thinking less and less every day. They've crossed it off,
as you might say."

The two who were bound in that peculiar comradeship were out on the
crag where they could look down upon the distant checker board of the
village. Vaniman, in the stress of the circumstances, wondered whether
he might be able to come at Wagg on the sentimental side of his nature.

"The little town must have gone completely broke since the bank failure.
Innocent people are suffering. If that money could be returned--"

He did not finish the sentence. Mr. Wagg was most distinctly not
encouraging that line of talk.

"Look here, Vaniman, when you got away with that money you had hardened
yourself up to the point where you were thinking of your own self first,
hadn't you?"

The young man did not dare to burst out with the truth--not while Wagg
was in the mood his expression hinted at.

Wagg continued: "Well, I've got myself to the point where I'm thinking
of my own self. I'm as hard as this rock I'm sitting on." In his
emphasis on that assertion Wagg scarred his knuckles against the ledge.
"After all the work I've had in getting myself to that point, I'm
proposing to stay there. If you try to soften me I shall consider that
you're welching on your trade."

Wagg made the declaration in loud tones. After all his years of
soft-shoeing and repression in a prison, the veteran guard was taking
full advantage of the wide expanses of the big outdoors.

"What did I do for you, Vaniman? I let you cash in on a play that I had
planned ever since the first barrow of dirt was dumped into that pit.
There's a lifer in that prison with rich relatives. I reckon they
would have come across with at least ten thousand dollars. There's a
manslaughter chap who owns four big apartment houses. But I picked you
because I could sympathize with you on account of your mother and that
girl the papers said so much about. It's a job that can't be done
over again, not even for the Apostle Peter. Now will you even hint at
welching?"

"Certainly not!"

But that affirmation did not come from Vaniman. It was made in his
behalf by a duet of voices, bass and nasal tenor, speaking loudly and
confidently behind the t