ate, Ed," they told him kindly. "You ain't a good liar."

"What makes you laugh, Steve?" said some one.

"Oh, the things I notice."

"Meaning Ed was pretty slow in backing up your play? The joke is really
on you, Steve. You'd ought never to have cursed the fire-builder if
you wanted us to believe he was present. But we'd not have done much to
Shorty, even if we had caught him. All he wants is to be scared good and
hard, and he'll go back into virtuousness, which is his nature when not
travelling with Trampas."

Steve's voice sounded hard now. "You have caught Ed and me. That should
satisfy you for one gather."

"Well, we think different, Steve. Trampas escaping leaves this thing
unfinished."

"So Trampas escaped too, did he?" said the prisoner.

"Yes, Steve, Trampas escaped--this time; and Shorty with him--this time.
We know it most as well as if we'd seen them go. And we're glad Shorty
is loose, for he'll build another fire or do some other foolishness next
time, and that's the time we'll get Trampas."

Their talk drifted to other points, and I lay thinking of the skirmish
that had played beneath the surface of their banter. Yes, the joke, as
they put it, was on Steve. He had lost one point in the game to them.
They were playing for names. He, being a chivalrous thief, was playing
to hide names. They could only, among several likely confederates, guess
Trampas and Shorty. So it had been a slip for him to curse the man
who built the fire. At least, they so held it. For, they with subtlety
reasoned, one curses the absent. And I agreed with them that Ed did not
know how to lie well; he should have at once claimed the disgrace
of having spoiled the expedition. If Shorty was the blunderer, then
certainly Trampas was the other man; for the two were as inseparable as
don and master. Trampas had enticed Shorty away from good, and trained
him in evil. It now struck me that after his single remark the Virginian
had been silent throughout their shrewd discussion.

It was the other prisoner that I heard them next address. "You don't eat
any breakfast, Ed."

"Brace up, Ed. Look at Steve, how hardy he eats!"

But Ed, it seemed, wanted no breakfast. And the tin dishes rattled as
they were gathered and taken to be packed.

"Drink this coffee, anyway," another urged; "you'll feel warmer."

These words almost made it seem like my own execution. My whole body
turned cold in company with the prisoner's, and as if with a cla