s--seems to know that your dad drawed a diagram of the place
an' left it with Betty. He set Telza to huntin' for it. Telza got it
tonight--it was hid somewhere. I was with him--waitin' for him. If he
got the diagram I was to knife him and take it away from him. Taggart
an' his dad is somewhere around here--I was to meet them down the river
a piece. Telza double-crossed me; tried to sneak over here an' hunt
the idol himself. I found him--he had the diagram. I tried to get it
from him--he stuck his toad-sticker in me, . . . the little
copper-skinned devil. He--" He hesitated and choked, raising himself
as though to get a long breath. But a dark flood again stained his
lips, he strangled and stretched out limply.

Calumet turned him over on his back and covered his face with a
handkerchief. Then he stood up, looking around at the edge of the
clearing. Ten feet in front of him, curled around the edge of a bit of
sagebrush, was a dirty white object. He walked over, kicked the
sagebrush violently, that a concealed rattler might not spring on him,
and took up the object. It was a piece of paper about six inches
square, and in the dim moonlight Calumet could see that it contained
writing of some sort and a crude sketch. He looked closer at it, saw a
spot marked "Idol is here," and then folded it quickly and placed it,
crumpled into a ball, into a pocket of his trousers.

He was now certain that Taggart had been merely deceiving Betty; there
had been no other significance to his visits. The visits were merely
part of a plan to get possession of the idol. While he had been
talking to Betty in the office tonight Telza had stolen the diagram.

There was more than triumph in Calumet's eyes as he turned his
pony--there was joy and savage exultation. The idol was his; he would
get the money, too. After that he would drive Betty and all of them--

But would he? A curious indecision mingled with his other emotions at
this thought. His face grew serious. Lately he was developing a
vacillating will; whenever he meditated any action with regard to Betty
he had an inclination to defer it. He postponed a decision now; he
would think it over again. Before he made up his mind on that question
he wanted to enjoy her discomfiture and confusion over the loss of the
diagram.

He had lost all thought of pursuing Taggart. Sharp had said that
Taggart was somewhere in the vicinity, but it was just possible that
Sharp had