ance of combat was even; the certainty of being slaughtered after it by
the soldiers was depressing; and, what was more immediately to the point,
he was cowed by that stare of habitual authority.

"Capm--I don't," he said, watching the officer with the eye of a lynx,
for, however unwilling to fight as things were, he meant to defend
himself.

"Because I could have you set up by my sergeant and executed by my
privates," continued Thurstane.

"Capm, I reckon you're sound there," admitted Texas, with a slight flinch
in his manner.

"Now, then, do you want to fight a duel?" broke out the angry youngster,
his pugnacity thoroughly getting the better of his wisdom. "We both have
pistols."

"Capm," said the bravo, and then came to a pause--"Capm, I ain't a
gentleman," he resumed, with the sulky humility of a bulldog who is beaten
by his master. "I own up to it, Capm. I ain't a gentleman."

He was a "poor white" by birth; he remembered still the "high-toned
gentlemen" who used to overawe his childhood; he recognized in Thurstane
that unforgotten air of domination, and he was thoroughly daunted by it.
Moreover, there was his acquired and very rational fear of the army--a
fear which had considerably increased upon him since he had joined this
expedition, for he had noted carefully the disciplined obedience of the
little squad of regulars, and had been much struck with its obvious
potency for offence and defence.

"You won't fight?" said the officer. "Well, then, will you stop hunting
me?"

"Capm, I'll go that much."

"Will you pledge yourself not to harm any one in this party, man or
woman?"

"I'll go that much, too."

"I don't want to get any tales out of you. You can keep your secrets. Damn
your secrets!"

"Capm, you're jest the whitest man I ever see."

"Will you pledge yourself to keep dark about this talk that we've had?"

"You bet!" replied Texas Smith, with an indescribable air of humiliation.
"I'm outbragged. I shan't tell of it."

"I shall give orders to my men. If anything queer happens, you won't live
the day out."

"The keerds is stocked agin me, Capm. I pass. You kin play it alone."

"Now, then, walk back to the Casa, and keep quiet during the rest of this
journey."

The most humbled bushwhacker and cutthroat between the two oceans, Texas
Smith stepped out in front of Thurstane and returned to the cooking-fire,
not quite certain as he marched that he would not get a pistol-ball in the
back of