ad and put him to bed with a shovel, if 'twere
me," Bowers had grumbled when he had helped move Pete Mullendore over to
Kate's headquarters.

"We've got to make him talk," Kate had replied grimly. "We've got to get
the truth somehow, Bowers, before he goes."

Kate had no prearranged plan as to the course she would pursue if
Mullendore became rational, but trusted to her instinct to guide her.
She was certain only of one thing--that if he had a spark of manhood in
him she would reach it somehow. Though he inspired in her a feeling
which was akin to her repugnance for creeping things, and there were
moments when something like her childish terror of the half-breed
trapper returned, she was determined that there were no lengths to which
she would not go, in the way of humbling her pride, to attain her end.

The clock, ticking loudly on its nail, said midnight, and still
Mullendore, deaf and blind to all save the fantastic world into which he
stared, mumbled incoherently.

At last, unable longer to sit quietly, Kate arose and leaned over him.

"Do you remember the Sand Coulee, Pete?--the Sand Coulee Roadhouse where
you used to stop?" she asked softly.

His mumblings ceased as if her voice had penetrated his dulled ears.
Then his lips moved:

"The Sand Coulee Roadhouse--the Sand Coulee--"

"Where you trapped. Remember the bear hides you brought in that spring
Katie left?"

"The pack's slippin' agin--them saddles is far and away too narrer--and
them green hides weigh like lead--" He ran his words together like a
person talking in his sleep.

"You load too heavy--you load to break a horse's back--Katie Prentice
always told you that."

A troubled frown grew between his eyes as though he was groping, vainly
groping for some elusive thought.

"Katie told me--Katie Prentice--" His voice trailed off and ended in a
breath.

She made a gesture of despair, but repeated persistently:

"She told you that you ought to be ashamed to pack a horse like that.
Three hundred pounds, Pete Mullendore! You haven't any feeling for a
horse."

"Killed Old Blue and left him on the trail. My, but you're gittin'
growed up fast. Ain't you got a kiss for Pete?"

She leaned closer.

"Would you do something for me if I kissed you--if Katie Prentice kissed
you, Pete Mullendore?"

She repeated her words, speaking in a whisper, with careful
distinctness.

"Will you tell Katie something that she wants to know, if she kisses
you, Pete