or my gun; he got it out of my hand; I pulled my
knife. He got that away, too. His fingers work with steel springs and
act like a cat's claws. Then we fought barehanded. He didn't say a word.
But kept snarling in his throat. Always like a cat. And his face was
devilish. Made me sick inside. Pretty soon he dived under my arms. Got
me up in the air. I came down on my head.

"Of course I went out cold. When I came to there was still a mist in
front of my eyes and this lump on the back of my head. He'd figured that
my head was cracked and that I was dead. That's the only reason he left
me. Later I climbed on my hoss and fed him the spur.

"But I was too late. I took the straight cut for the ford, and when I
got there I found that Donnegan had been there before me. Joe Rix was
lyin' on the floor. When he got to the shack Donnegan was waitin' for
him. They went for their guns and Donnegan beat him to it. The hound
didn't shoot to kill. He plugged him through both shoulders, and left
him lyin' helpless. But I got a couple of bandages on him and saved him.

"Then we cut back for home and crossed the marsh. And there we found the
Pedlar.

"Too late to help him. Maybe Donnegan knew that the Pedlar was something
of a flash with a gun himself, and he didn't take any chances. He'd met
him face to face the same way he met Joe Rix and killed him. Shot him
clean between the eyes. Think of shooting for the head with a snap shot!
That's what he done and Joe didn't have time to think twice after that
slug hit him. His gun wasn't even fired, he was beat so bad on the draw.

"So Joe and me come back home. And we come full of questions!"

"Let me tell you something," muttered Lord Nick, putting up the weapon
which he had kept exposed during all of the recital. "You've got what
was coming to you. If Donnegan hadn't cleaned up on you, you'd have had
to talk turkey with me. Understand?"

"Wait a minute," protested Harry Masters.

And Joe Rix, almost too far gone for speech, set his teeth over a groan
and cast a look of hatred at the girl.

"Wait a minute, chief. There's one thing we all got to get straight.
Somebody had tipped off Donnegan about our whole plan. Was it the Pedlar
or Rix or me? I guess good sense'll tell a man that it wasn't none of
us, eh? Then who was it? The only other person that knew about the
plan--Nell--Nell, the crooked witch--and it's her that murdered the
Pedlar--curse her!"

He thrust out his bulky arm as he