d ha-ha-half blind with blood where Dic knocked him, and he
didn't know who f-f-fired the shot."

"But suppose he should know?"

"B-but he won't know, I-I tell ye. I-I t-trust you; c-can't you trust
Patsy? I-I'm not as big a f-fool as I look. I-I let p-people think I'm a
fool because when p-people think you're a f-fool, it's lots easier
t-t-to work 'em. See?"

* * * * *

Billy left Doug hovering between life and death, and hurried back to
Dic. "Patsy says you took the gun from where it was leaning against the
tree and shot Hill. I suppose he doesn't know exactly how it did
happen. I told him you said that was the way of it, and he assents. He
says Doug doesn't know who fired the shot. We shall be able to leave
Rita entirely out of the case, and you may, with perfect safety, enter a
plea of self-defence."

Dic breathed a sigh of relief and longed to thank Billy, but dared not,
and the old friend rode homeward unthanked but highly satisfied.

On the way home Billy fell into deep thought, and the thoughts grew into
mutterings: "Billy Little, you are coming to great things. A briber, a
suborner of perjury, a liar. I expect soon to hear of you stealing.
Burglary is a profitable and honorable occupation. Go it, Billy
Little.--And for this you came like a wise man out of the East to leaven
the loaf of the West--all for the sake of a girl, a mere child, whom you
are foolish enough to--nonsense--and for the sake of the man she is to
marry." Then the grief of his life seemed to come back to him in a
flood, and he continued almost bitterly: "I don't believe I have led an
evil life. I don't want to feel like a Pharisee; but I don't recollect
having injured any man or woman in the whole course of my miserable
existence, yet I have missed all that is best in life. Even when I have
not suffered, my life has been a pale, tasteless blank with nothing but
a little poor music and worse philosophy to break the monotony. The
little pleasure I have had from any source has been enjoyed alone, and
no joy is complete unless one may give at least a part of it to another.
If one has a pleasure all to himself, he is apt to hate it at times, and
this is one of the times. Billy Little, you must be suffering for the
sins of an ancestor. I wonder what he did, damn him."

This mood was unusual for Billy. In his youth he had been baptized with
the chrism of sorrow and was safe from the devil of discontent. He was
b