e here for?" he said.

"No," she answered.

He reached out suddenly and grasped her hands, pulling her roughly over
to him. She gave a startled cry and then stood silent before him,
slender and white, a subdued little figure dwarfed by his huge bulk,
seemingly helpless.

"I'll tell you," he said, the strange hoarseness of deep passion in his
voice. "Me an' my dad are leavin' the country tonight. We sold the
Arrow today, an' by this time tomorrow we'll be among the missin' in
this section of the country. But there's some things to be done before
we pull our freight. You think you've been damned slick about the
idol--you an' that mule-kickin' shorthorn, Calumet Marston! But we've
fooled you," he continued with a short, ugly laugh; "fooled you clean!
Mebbe you know this, an' mebbe you don't. But I'm tellin' you. We set
Telza, the Toltec, an' Sharp to get the diagram of the place where the
idol is. They didn't get it because the clearin' ain't dug up any.
Telza knifed Sharp an' he's sloped, likely figgerin' that this country
ain't healthy for him any more. You've got the diagram an' I want it.
I'm goin' to get it if I have to kill you to get it! Understand!

"You've got no chance," he sneered, as she looked around the room
furtively, hopelessly. "We framed up a murder charge on Calumet and
we've been in the timber since dark waitin' for the sheriff to come an'
get him. We saw him hit the breeze toward the Arrow, an' we saw the
sheriff go after him. Neither of them can be back here for hours yet,
an' when they do get back I'll have done what I've set out to do."

He laughed again, harshly, triumphantly. "Dade an' Malcolm bothered
me a bit until I thought of sendin' Harvey Miller here with that fairy
tale about the forty beeves bogged down in Double Fork, but I reckon
now--"

She gasped, comprehending the trap he had set for her, and his grip on
her hands tightened.

"Dade an' Malcolm can't get back for an hour yet," he gloated, "an' by
that time we'll be miles away." His voice changed from mockery to
savage determination. "I want that diagram, an' I want it right now,
or I'll tear you to pieces. Do you understand? I'll beat you up so's
your own mother wouldn't know you." His grip tightened on her arms,
they were twisted until she screamed with agony.

In this extremity her thoughts went to Calumet; she remembered vividly
what he had said about the idol when she had asked him why he did not
get