ing that will take the hide off
of me like parting with the savings of a lifetime. But I haven't got
anything to give."

"Yes, you have," she said, "and it will hurt just the same. It is
something you had on then."

"Huh, I didn't have hardly anything but my clothes and my gun. You
don't mean----"

"Yes, I mean the gun."

"Oh!" he said, and fell into silence while she watched him from beneath
her long lashes. He reached back ruefully and drew out his pistol and
twirled the cylinder with his thumb.

"That's a fine old gun," he said at last. "I sure have carried it many
a mile."

"Yes," she answered, and sat there, waiting, and at last he met her
eyes.

"What's the idea?" he asked, but his tone was resentful--he knew what
was in her mind.

"I just want it," she said. "More than anything else. And you must
never get another one."

"How'm I going to protect myself?" he demanded hotly. "How'm I going
to protect my claims? If it wasn't for that gun, where'd the Old Juan
be to-day?"

"Well, where is it?" she asked and smiled.

"Why----"

"Why, you lost it," she supplied. "And I won it," she added. "It
stands in my name to-day."

"Yes, but Andrew McBain----"

"Was he any smarter than Stoddard? Well, I didn't need any gun."

"Yes, but look who you are!" observed Rimrock sarcastically and
balanced the old gun in his hand.

"Well, there we are," she remarked at last. "Right back where we
started from."

"Where's that?" he enquired.

"Back to our first quarrel," she sighed. "A woman never forgets it.
It's different, I suppose, with a man."

"Yes, I reckon it is," he agreed despondently. "We try to forget our
troubles."

"Does it help any to get drunk?" she asked impersonally and he saw
where the conversation had swung. It had veered back again to his
merits as a married man and the answer had come from his own lips. He
knew too well that look in her eye, that polite and polished calm.
Mary Fortune was not strong for scenes. She just made up her mind and
then all the devils in hell could not sway her from her purpose. And
she had rejected him as a gun-fighter and a drunkard.

"Here! Now!" he exclaimed, rising to his feet in alarm. "Now here,
don't get me wrong! Say, I'd give my heart's blood, just for one more
kiss--do you think I'll hold out on this gun? Here, take it, girl, and
if I ever drink a drop I want you to shoot me dead!"

He handed over the gun and she took it solemn