id Blue, calmly. "You know
we all reckoned we'd git plugged one way or another in this deal. An'
shore it doesn't matter much how a fellar gits it. All thet ought to
bother us is to make shore the other outfit bites the dust--same as
your dad had to."

Under this man's tranquil presence, all the more quieting because it
seemed to be so deadly sure and cool, Jean felt the uplift of his dark
spirit, the acceptance of fatality, the mounting control of faculties
that must wait. The little gunman seemed to have about his inert
presence something that suggested a rattlesnake's inherent knowledge of
its destructiveness. Jean sat down and wiped his clammy face.

"Jean, your dad reckoned to square accounts with Jorth, an' save us
all," began Blue, puffing out a cloud of smoke. "But he reckoned too
late. Mebbe years; ago--or even not long ago--if he'd called Jorth out
man to man there'd never been any Jorth-Isbel war. Gaston Isbel's
conscience woke too late. That's how I figger it."

"Hurry! Tell me--how it--happen," panted Jean.

"Wal, a little while after y'u left I seen your dad writin' on a leaf
he tore out of a book--Meeker's Bible, as yu can see. I thought thet
was funny. An' Blaisdell gave me a hunch. Pretty soon along comes
young Evarts. The old man calls him out of our hearin' an' talks to
him. Then I seen him give the boy somethin', which I afterward figgered
was what he wrote on the leaf out of the Bible. Me an' Blaisdell both
tried to git out of him what thet meant. But not a word. I kept
watchin' an' after a while I seen young Evarts slip out the back way.
Mebbe half an hour I seen a bare-legged kid cross, the road an' go into
Greaves's store.... Then shore I tumbled to your dad. He'd sent a note
to Jorth to come out an' meet him face to face, man to man! ... Shore
it was like readin' what your dad had wrote. But I didn't say nothin'
to Blaisdell. I jest watched."

Blue drawled these last words, as if he enjoyed remembrance of his keen
reasoning. A smile wreathed his thin lips. He drew twice on the
cigarette and emitted another cloud of smoke. Quite suddenly then he
changed. He made a rapid gesture--the whip of a hand, significant and
passionate. And swift words followed:

"Colonel Lee Jorth stalked out of the store--out into the road--mebbe a
hundred steps. Then he halted. He wore his long black coat an' his
wide black hat, an' he stood like a stone.

"'What the hell!' burst out Bla