even of the Governor's party had entered the
barricade, the others having been left outside to prevent a retreat
toward Heart o' Dreams in case the enemy attempted flight.

"We ain't gettin' nowhere!" growled Leary at the end of a third
inconclusive hand-to-hand struggle with only a few battered heads as the
result.

"There's gold for all of you!" screamed Carey to his men, and urged them
to another attack.

They advanced again, but Archie was quick to see that they came into the
light reluctantly and precipitated themselves half-heartedly into the
struggle. The Governor, too, was aware of their diminished spirit and
got his men in line for a charge.

"We'll clean 'em up this time, boys!" he called encouragingly.

He took the lead, walking forward calmly, and in a low tone pointing out
the individual that each should attack. The quiet orderliness of the
movement, or perhaps it was a sense of impending defeat, roused Carey to
a greater fury than he had yet shown. As the invaders broke line for the
assault, he leaped at the Governor and swung at him viciously with a
rifle. The Governor sprang aside and the gun slipped from Carey's hands
and clattered against the barricade.

Angered by his failure, and finding his men yielding, Carey abruptly
changed his tactics. He ran back beyond the roaring fire and caught up
another rifle. Leary began circling round the flames in the hope of
grappling with him, but he was too late. Without taking time for aim,
Carey leveled the weapon and fired through the flames.

Archie, struggling with a big woodsman, beat him down and turned as the
shot rang out. The Governor was standing apart, oddly and strangely
alone it seemed to Archie, and he was an eternity falling. He raised
himself slightly, carrying his rifle high above his head, and his face
was uplifted as though in that supreme moment he invoked the stars of
his dreams. Then he pitched forward and lay very still.

Carey's shot seemed to have broken the tacit truce against a resort to
arms. There was a sharp fusillade, followed by a scramble as the
belligerents sought cover. The men who had been left outside now leaped
over the barricade. The appearance of reenforcements either frightened
Carey or the success of his shot had awakened a new rage in his crazed
mind, for he emptied his rifle, firing wildly as he danced with
fantastic step toward the prone figure of the Governor.

Archie, his heart a dead weight in his breast, res