led shriek from Godwin, who fled headlong;
and then a sharp command from Donnegan stopped the big man.

"Come here," said Donnegan.

George Washington Green rode slowly closer.

"If I let you go what would you do?"

There was a glint of teeth.

"I'd find him."

"And break him in two, eh? Instead, I'm going to take you home, where
you'll have a chance of breaking me in two instead. There's something
about the cut of your shoulders and your head that I like, Green; and if
you don't murder me in the first hour or so, I think we'll get on very
well together. You hear?"

The silence of George Washington Green was a tremendous thing.

"Now ride ahead of me. I'll direct you how to go."

He went first straight back through the town and up the hill to the two
tents. He made George go before him into the tent and take up the roll
of bedding; and then, with George and the bedding leading the way, and
Donnegan leading the two horses behind, they went across the hillside to
a shack which he had seen vacated that evening. It certainly could not
be rented again before morning, and in the meantime Donnegan would be in
possession, which was a large part of the law in The Corner, as he knew.

A little lean-to against the main shack served as a stable; the creek
down the hillside was the watering trough. And Donnegan stood by while
the big Negro silently tended to the horses--removing the packs and
preparing them for the night. Still in silence he produced a small
lantern and lighted it. It showed his face for the first time--the skin
ebony black and polished over the cheekbones, but the rest of the face
almost handsome, except that the slight flare of his nostrils gave him a
cast of inhuman ferocity. And the fierceness was given point by a pair
of arms of gorilla length; broad shoulders padded with rolling muscles,
and the neck of a bull. On the whole, Donnegan, a connoisseur of
fighting men, had never seen such promise of strength.

At his gesture, George led the way into the house. It was more
commodious than most of the shacks of The Corner. In place of a single
room this had two compartments--one for the kitchen and another for the
living room. In vacating the hut, the last occupants had left some of
the furnishings behind them. There was a mirror, for instance, in the
corner; and beneath the mirror a cheap table in whose open drawer
appeared a tumble of papers. Donnegan dropped the heavy sack of Godwin's
winnings to the