rs. Why don't you let me
call a taxi--there's a train south at eleven-thirty."

"Thanks, E.H.--but I'm only going over to the hospital."

"You sure will, if you stick around this town long."

"I'm going to see that boy through," said The Spider.

"Then you're not after any one?"

"No, not that way."

"Well, you got me guessing. I thought I knew you."

"Mebby, Ed. Now, if the boy comes through all right, and I don't, I
want you to see that he gets this money. There's nobody in town can
identify him but me--and mebby I won't be around here to do it. If he
comes here and tells you he's Pete Annersley and that The Spider told
him to come, hand him the draft. 'Course, if things go smooth, I'll
take care of that draft myself."

"Making your will, Jim?"

"Something like that."

"All right. I might as well talk to the moon. I used to think that
you were a wise one--"

"Just plain dam' fool, same as you, E.H. The only difference is that
you're tryin' to help _me_ out--and I aim to help out a kid that is
plumb straight."

"But I have some excuse. If it hadn't been for you when I was down
south on that Union Oil deal--"

"Ed, we're both as crooked as they make 'em, only you play your game
with stocks and cash, inside--and I play mine outside, and she's a lone
hand. This kid, Pete, is sure a bad hombre to stack up against--but
he's plumb straight."

"You seem to think a whole lot of him."

"I do," said The Spider simply.

The president shook his head. The Spider rose and stuck out his hand.
"So-long, Ed."

"So-long, Jim. I'll handle this for you. But I hate like hell to
think it's the last time I _can_ handle a deal for you."

"You can't tell," said The Spider.

The president of the Stockmen's Security sat turning over the papers on
his desk. It had been a long while since he had been in the
saddle--some eighteen or twenty years. As a young man he had been sent
into Mexico to prospect for oil. There were few white men in Mexico
then. But despite their vicarious callings they usually stood by each
other. The Spider, happening along during a quarrel among the natives
and the oil-men, took a hand in the matter, which was merely incidental
to his profession. The oil-men had managed to get out of that part of
the country with the loss of but two men--a pretty fair average, as
things went those days. Years afterwards the president of the
Stockmen's Security happened to meet The Spider in El