Pete nodded.

"Don't hesitate to ask me,"--and Andover rose. "Your
friend--er--Ewell--arranged for any little contingency that might
arise."

"Then I kin go most any time?" queried Pete.

"We'll see how you are feeling next week. Meanwhile keep out in the
sun--but wrap up well. Good-bye!"

Pete realized that to make a fresh start in life he would have to begin
at the bottom.

He had ever been inclined to look forward rather than backward--to put
each day's happenings behind him as mere incidents in his general
progress--and he began to realize that these happenings had accumulated
to a bulk that could not be ignored, if the fresh start that he
contemplated were to be made successfully. He recalled how he had felt
when he had squared himself with Roth for that six-gun. But the
surreptitious taking of the six-gun had been rather a mistake than a
deliberate intent to steal. And Pete tried to justify himself with the
thought that all his subsequent trouble had been the result of mistakes
due to conditions thrust upon him by a fate which had slowly driven him
to his present untenable position--that of a fugitive from the law,
without money and without friends. He came to the bitter conclusion
that his whole life had been a mistake--possibly not through his own
initiative, but a mistake nevertheless. He knew that his only course
was to retrace and untangle the snarl of events in which his feet were
snared. Accustomed to rely upon his own efforts--he had always been
able to make his living--he suddenly realized the potency of money;
that money could alleviate suffering, influence authority, command
freedom--at least temporary freedom--and even in some instances save
life itself.

Yet it was characteristic of Pete that he did not regret anything that
he had done, in a moral sense. He had made mistakes--and he would have
to pay for them--but only once. He would not make these mistakes
again. A man was a fool who deliberately rode his horse into the same
box canon twice.

Pete wondered if his letter to Jim Bailey had been received and what
Bailey's answer would be. The letter must have reached Bailey by this
time. And then Pete thought of The Spider's note, advising him to call
at the Stockmen's Security; and of The Spider's peculiar insistence
that he do so--that Hodges would "use him square."

Pete wondered what it all signified. He knew that The Spider had money
deposited with the Stockmen's Securit