plainly working himself into a rage
sufficient to launch murder.

"Yore father railroaded me to the penitentiary--cooked up testimony
against me. You bust me with a club when I wasn't looking. Here's
where I git even. See?"

The imminence of tragedy had swept the space about them empty of
people. Roy knew with a sinking heart that it was between him and the
hillman to settle this alone. He had been caught with the suitcase in
his right hand, so that he was practically trapped unarmed. Before he
could draw his revolver, Meldrum would be pumping lead.

Two months ago under similar circumstances terror had paralyzed Roy's
thinking power. Now his brain functioned in spite of his fear. He was
shaken to the center of his being, but he was not in panic.
Immediately he set himself to play the poor cards he found in his hand.

"Liar!" Beaudry heard a chill voice say and knew it was his own.
"Liar on both counts! My father sent you up because you were a thief.
I beat your head off because you are a bully. Listen!" Roy shot the
last word out in crescendo to forestall the result of a convulsive
movement of the hand beneath his enemy's coat. "_Listen, if you want
to live the day out_, you yellow coyote!"

Beaudry had scored his first point--to gain time for his argument to
get home to the sodden brain. Dave Dingwell had told him that most men
were afraid of something, though some hid it better than others; and he
had added that Dan Meldrum had the murderer's dread lest vengeance
overtake him unexpectedly. Roy knew now that his partner had spoken
the true word. At that last stinging sentence, alarm had jumped to the
blear eyes of the former convict.

"Whadjamean?" demanded Meldrum thickly, the menace of horrible things
in his voice.

"Mean? Why, this. You came here to kill me, but you haven't the nerve
to do it. You've reached the end of your rope, Dan Meldrum. You're a
killer, but you'll never kill again. Murder me, and the law would hang
you high as Haman--_if it ever got a chance_."

The provisional clause came out with a little pause between each word
to stress the meaning. The drunken man caught at it to spur his rage.

"Hmp! Mean you're man enough to beat the law to it?"

Beaudry managed to get out a derisive laugh. "Oh, no! Not when I have
a suitcase in my right hand and you have the drop on me. I can't help
myself--_and twenty men see it_."

"Think they'll help you?" Meldrum swept his