The remaining portion was supported by the point of
contact just under his chin. Failing to swing him clear, Kent clung on,
resolved to slowly throttle him or force him to tell what he had done
with the hoard. But the Man with the Gash would not throttle. Five,
ten, fifteen minutes passed, and at the end of that time, in despair,
Kent let his prisoner down.

"Well," he remarked, wiping away the sweat, "if you won't hang you'll
shoot. Some men wasn't born to be hanged, anyway."

"An' it's a pretty mess as you'll make o' this 'ere cabin floor."
Cardegee was fighting for time. "Now, look 'ere, I'll tell you wot we
do; we'll lay our 'eads 'longside an' reason together. You've lost some
dust. You say as 'ow I know, an' I say as 'ow I don't. Let's get a
hobservation an' shape a course--"

"Vast heavin'!" Kent dashed in, maliciously imitating the other's
enunciation. "I'm going to shape all the courses of this shebang, and
you observe; and if you do anything more, I'll bore you as sure as
Moses!"

"For the sake of my mother--"

"Whom God have mercy upon if she loves you. Ah! Would you?" He
frustrated a hostile move on the part of the other by pressing the cold
muzzle against his forehead. "Lay quiet, now! If you lift as much as a
hair, you'll get it."

It was rather an awkward task, with the trigger of the gun always within
pulling distance of the finger; but Kent was a weaver, and in a few
minutes had the sailor tied hand and foot. Then he dragged him without
and laid him by the side of the cabin, where he could overlook the river
and watch the sun climb to the meridian.

"Now I'll give you till noon, and then--"

"Wot?"

"You'll be hitting the brimstone trail. But if you speak up, I'll keep
you till the next bunch of mounted police come by."

"Well, Gawd blime me, if this ain't a go! 'Ere I be, innercent as a
lamb, an' 'ere you be, lost all o' your top 'amper an' out o' your
reckonin', run me foul an' goin' to rake me into 'ell-fire. You bloomin'
old pirut! You--"

Jim Cardegee loosed the strings of his profanity and fairly outdid
himself. Jacob Kent brought out a stool that he might enjoy it in
comfort. Having exhausted all the possible combinations of his
vocabulary, the sailor quieted down to hard thinking, his eyes constantly
gauging the progress of the sun, which tore up the eastern slope of the
heavens with unseemly haste. His dogs, surprised that they had not long
since been put