sed pulling at her hands. He stared at her, amazed, casting
aside his last pretence.

"What you talking about, Nora? I know you're clever, but there aren't
any more miracles. There's no way out of this town for us."

Her voice was barely audible.

"Unless my father unlocked the gates."

Slim started. Garth, too, answered to a desire almost violent. Surely
Slim would realize the hopelessness of securing the inspector's
complicity, or, failing that, would seek, as Garth did, for the
stratagem behind her plan. Slim, nevertheless, continued to study her,
and the narrow face no longer hid his greed for life.

"There's no way under heaven to get the old man to stand for that."

She took her hands from the bottle. Her eyes did not waver.

"No one else could do it, but you know how he loves me. I could make
him do it as the price for myself and Jim."

Slim laughed shortly.

"One thing's certain," he mused. "If you did get away with it, I could
keep you and the inspector straight. I'd take Garth, bound tight, some
guns, and the acid along as gilt-edge securities. Hadn't thought of
that, eh? Expected to trip me, didn't you? Well, Nora, you have let
yourself in for a dicker, and, by gad I'm inclined to think it over,
because I've got you this far: the minute you played queer Garth would
go blind and burnt."

Nora conquered her disappointment.

"You'd swear to let Jim go at the border?"

"On my oath I'd let him go clean."

"Not for a million," George broke in angrily. "She gets herself away,
then she throws Garth down to see us roast in the chair. You ought to
know the skirt. She'd double cross the devil himself."

Garth waited for Slim's answer, his gaze controlled again by the acid.

"George," Slim said slowly, "any chance is worth playing now, for we're
as good as in the chair already. And I don't believe she'd throw Garth
down. You know what she went through with for the sake of a dead lover."

"You've got to show me," George sneered, "that she's forgotten the dead
one to take on Garth."

"We heard in the Tombs," Slim said drily, "that these pigeons wanted to
roost on the same stool."

With a growing wonder Garth watched Nora fling aside her reserve. She
turned on George, raising her hands in an attitude of fury, as if
inspired by a passion beyond her control.

"And that's true. If you think I'd let him take that acid give the
bottle to me, and I'll use it on myself instead."

She knelt at Garth's side,