, in his new spirit of loneliness, in the consciousness that
no man's hand was offered to him in the way of help, he entered upon a
new phase of resolution. He had gone into prison with youth's ingenuous
belief that the truth would prevail. He had permitted a lie to aid in
prying his way out, and now he was paltering with evasions and making no
progress except toward more dangerous involvement. One afternoon sudden
fury swept the props out from under caution.

He leaped up from the rock on which he had been sitting, pondering, the
rumble of the conspirators' conversation serving as obbligato for the
cry his soul was uttering. He was between them and the sunset sky.

"The truth!" he shouted.

The three men peered at him, shading their eyes. He seemed to tower with
heroic stature. He came at them, shaking his fists over his head.

"You are thieves and renegades. I don't believe you know the truth when
you hear it. But you're going to hear it."

He tackled Wagg first. He set the grip of both of his hands into the
slack of the shoulders of the amazed guard's coat and yanked Wagg to his
feet and shouted, with his nose barely an inch from Wagg's face, "I told
you the truth at first. I said I didn't know where the money was. You
gave me a chance to get out by a lie. I'm human. I took the chance."

He threw Wagg from him with a force that sent the man staggering; the
guard stumbled over a rock and fell on his back.

He turned on the convicts. By his set-to with Wagg he had gained their
full attention. "You low-lived scoundrels, do you know an honest man
when you lay eyes on him? I declare that I am one. Dispute me, and I'll
knock your teeth down your throats--guns or no guns. I don't know where
the money is. I never touched that money. I didn't know what was in
those sacks. If you were decent men, with any conception of an oath
before God, I'd swear to the truth of what I say. I won't lower myself
to make oath! I make the statement. And now let some of you--or all
three of you--stand up in front of me and tell me that I'm lying. Come
on! It's an open field!"

They did not stand up. Wagg merely sat up.

"Say something! Some one of you! Say something!" pleaded Vaniman through
his set teeth.

The convicts kept their sitting. Vaniman went on adjuring them to stand
up and say something. They showed no resentment when he called them
names, and they indicated no relish for battle.

"Hold on a minute!" pleaded the short man