ly going to make a big jump, leaving the
state, maybe the nation. But before he goes, he swears he is coming
over here and kill the only man that ever beat him to the draw--that
ever knocked him down. So be on your guard, my friend. He's a fiend, a
maniac, and that incident preys on him."

"Well, I am certainly obliged to you for this warning," said Welborn
quietly. "If I only knew the date of his proposed visit, we would
provide him with a fitting welcome--a welcome that would add a climax
to his book of hate."

"When he's to come, or how, I don't know," Maddy replied. "It's been a
week since I heard him make the threat, then he made it twice in one
night, accompanied by all the profanity he could muster. He and his
gang were dissolving partnership on account of recent publicity. Two
of 'em would go over to Las Vegas to look over the new dam at Boulder,
one was returning to Denver and this Count Como--he has several other
names--was to come here, get his revenge, and seek another hideout."

Pressed by Landy as to how he contacted the gangsters and received his
injuries, the oldster related the story of his summer's wanderings. He
had spent some time on the other side of the Divide in the Hahns Peak
district, skirted Steamboat Springs on his way to Oak Creek. In his
wanderings, he had panned the alluvium of many small streams and had
recovered more than the usual amount of gold. Now he would work his
way back home through the Middle Park and cross the tortuous windings
of the Divide by the way of his secret pass.

Approaching the Grand Lake district he encountered two men who said
they were looking for lost sheep. Both were maudlin drunk and each was
trying to impress the other with his wisdom, his repartee and
boldness. Upon Maddy's refusal to accompany them, they seized him
bodily, searched him, searched the burro to find the gold and then
pushed, dragged, and drove him and the burro to a nearby cabin.

Here, he was to encounter two other drunken fanatics whose maudlin
quarrels were interrupted by the exhibition of the pouches of gold.
Now, they would know the exact location of the find. The explanation
of the aged wanderer that the dust and particles came from many
sources, seemed to enrage them further. "Just where was this
mother-lode?" They wanted to know. "Here was wealth aplenty-enough to
buy everything."

And they applied the third degree with all the fiendish deviltries of
their distorted minds, to get