d in front of him, slightly at his right.
More rustling and then a head and shoulder slowly pushed past him into
view. The man moved very slowly and cautiously and was crouched, his
head far in advance of his waist. The Orphan could see only one side
of the face, the angle of the man's jaw and an ear, but that was enough,
for he knew the owner. Slowly and without a sound the foreman's right
hand turned at the wrist until the Colt gleamed on a line with the
other's heart. The searcher leaned forward and to one side, that he
might better see the boots, when a sound met his ears.

"Don't move," whispered the foreman.

The prowler stiffened in his tracks, frozen to rigidity by the command.
Then he slowly turned his head and looked squarely into the gun of the
man he thought he had killed.

"Christ!" he cried hoarsely, starting back.

"I don't reckon you'll ever know Him," said The Orphan, his voice very
low and monotonous. "Stand just as you are--don't move--I want to talk
with you."

Tex simply stared at him in pitiful helplessness and could not speak,
beads of perspiration standing out on his face, testifying to the agony
of fear he was in.

"You're on the wrong side of the game again, Tex," The Orphan said slowly,
watching the puncher narrowly, his gun steady as a rock. "You still
want to kill me, it seems. I've given you your life twice, once to your
knowledge, and I told you with the sheriff that I would shoot you if you
ever returned; and still you have come back to have me do it. You were
not satisfied to let things rest as they were."

Tex did not reply, and The Orphan continued, a flicker of contempt about
his lips.

"You were never cast for an outlaw, Tex. If I do say it myself, it
takes a clever man to live at that game, and I know, for I've been all
through it. As you see, Sneed and I didn't shoot each other, for the
play was too plain, too transparent. You should have ambushed one of
his men, burned his corrals and slaughtered his cattle, for then he
might have shot and talked later. And he might have gotten me, too,
for I was unsuspecting. I don't say that I would kill an innocent man to
arouse his anger if I had been in your place, I'm only showing you
where you made the mistake, where you blundered. Had you killed one of
his men it is very probable that his rage would have known no bounds,
but as it was the provocation was not great enough."

Tex remained silent and unconsciously toyed at his ear.