, without traipsing
around here nights. Don't you figure I'm entitled to any rest?"

But he let them into the ramshackle building that served as a jail, and
after three dollars had jingled in the palm of his hand he stepped
outside and left the men alone with his prisoner. The three put their
heads together and whispered.

"I'll meet you outside the house of Selfridge in half an hour, Strong,"
was the last thing that Gordon said before Jones came back to order out
the visitors.

As soon as the place was dark again, Gordon set to work on the flimsy
framework of his cell window. He knew already it was so decrepit that he
could escape any time he desired, but until now there had been no reason
why he should. Within a quarter of an hour he lifted the iron-grilled
sash bodily from the frame and crawled through the window.

He found Paget and Strong waiting for him in the shadows of a pine
outside the yard of Selfridge.

"To begin with, you walk straight home and go to bed, Peter," the young
man announced. "You're not in this. You're not invited to our party. I
don't have to tell you why, do I?"

The engineer understood the reason. He was an employee of Macdonald, a
man thoroughly trusted by him. Even though Gordon intended only to right
a wrong, it was better that Paget should not be a party to it.
Reluctantly Peter went home.

Gordon turned to Strong. "I owe you a lot already. There's no need for
you to run a risk of getting into trouble for me. If things break right,
I can do what I have to do without help."

"And if they don't?" Strong waved an impatient hand. "Cut it out,
Elliot. I've taken a fancy to go through with this. I never did like
Selfridge anyhow, and I ain't got a wife and I don't work for Mac. Why
the hell shouldn't I have some fun?"

Gordon shrugged his shoulders. "All right. Might as well play ball and
get things moving, then."

The little miner knocked at the door. Wally himself opened. Elliot, from
the shelter of the pine, saw the two men in talk. Selfridge shut the
door and came to the edge of the porch. He gave a gasp and his hands
went trembling into the air. The six-gun of the miner had been pressed
hard against his fat paunch. Under curt orders he moved down the steps
and out of the yard to the tree.

At sight of Gordon the eyes of Wally stood out in amazement. Little
sweat beads burst out on his forehead, for he remembered how busy he had
been collecting evidence against this man.

"