ash of blue and red and
white all together. Pearce swayed upright, like a tree chopped at the
roots, and then fell, face up, eyes set--dead. The bandit leader stood
over him with the smoking gun.

"My Gawd, Jack!" gasped Handy Oliver. "You swore no one would pull
a gun--an' here you've killed him yourself!... YOU'VE DOUBLE-CROSSED
YOURSELF! An' if I die for it I've got to tell you Red wasn't lyin'
then!"

Kells's radiance fled, leaving him ghastly. He stared at Oliver.

"You've double-crossed yourself an' your pards," went on Oliver,
pathetically. "What's your word amount to? Do you expect the gang
to stand for this?... There lays Red Pearce dead. An' for what? Jest
once--relyin' on your oath--he speaks out what might have showed you.
An' you kill him!... If I knowed what he knowed I'd tell you now with
thet gun in your hand! But I don't know. Only I know he wasn't lyin'....
Ask the girl!... An' as for me, I reckon I'm through with you an' your
Legion. You're done, Kells--your head's gone--you've broke over thet
slip of a woman!"

Oliver spoke with a rude and impressive dignity. When he ended he strode
out into the sunlight.

Kells was shaken by this forceful speech, yet he was not in any sense
a broken man. "Joan--you heard Pearce," said he, passionately. "He lied
about you. I had to kill him. He hinted--Oh, the low-lived dog! He could
not know a good woman. He lied--and there he is--dead! I wouldn't fetch
him back for a hundred Legions!"

"But it--it wasn't--all--a lie," said Joan, and her words came haltingly
because a force stronger than her cunning made her speak. She had
reached a point where she could not deceive Kells to save her life.

"WHAT!" he thundered.

"Pearce told the truth--except that no one ever climbed in my window.
That's false. No one could climb in. It's too small.... But I did
whisper--to someone."

Kells had to moisten his lips to speak. "Who?"

"I'll never tell you."

"Who?... I'll kill him!"

"No--no. I won't tell. I won't let you kill another man on my account."

"I'll choke it out of you."

"You can't. There's no use to threaten me, or hurt me, either."

Kells seemed dazed. "Whisper! For hours! In the dark!... But, Joan, what
for? Why such a risk?"

Joan shook her head.

"Were you just unhappy--lonesome? Did some young miner happen to see
you there in daylight--then come at night? Wasn't it only accident? Tell
me."

"I won't--and I won't because I don't want you to s