Coach Caney up, before you go in. He's not so bad--he's coming
to. Fresh air will do him good, likely. Drag it, now."

"Say, Travis, I didn't see you doin' so much," muttered one of the
gangsters as Caney was carried away, deathly sick. He eyed the little
man resentfully. "Seems to me like you talk pretty big."

The little man turned on him in a fury.

"What the hell could I do? Swept up in a bunch of blatting bull calves
like that, and me the size I am? By the jumping Jupiter, if I could
have got the chance I would 'a' stayed for one fall if he had been the
devil himself, pitchfork, horns and tail! As it was, I'm blame well
thankful I wasn't stomped to death."

"All this proves what I was telling you," said Hales suavely. "If you
chaps intend to stretch Johnny Dines, to-night's the only time. If one
puncher can do this to you"--he surveyed the wrecked saloon with a
malicious grin--"what do you expect when the John Cross warriors get
here? It's now or never."

"Never, as far as I'm concerned," declared the bullet-headed man of
the free lunch. "I'm outclassed. I've had e-nough! I'm done and I'm
gone!"

"Never for me too. And I'm done with this pack of curs--done for all
time," yelped the little man. "I'm beginning to get a faint idea of
what I must look like to any man that's even half white. Little See is
worth the whole boiling of us. For two cents I'd hunt him up and kiss
his foot and be his Man Friday--if he'd have me. I begin to think
Dines never killed Forbes at all. Forbes was shot in the back, and
Shaky Akins says Dines is just such another as Charlie See. And Shaky
would be a decent man himself if he didn't have to pack soapstones.
I'll take his word for Dines. As sure as I'm a foot high, I've a good
mind to go down to the jail and throw in with Gwinne."

"You wouldn't squeal, Travis?" pleaded the Merman. "You was in this as
deep as the rest of us, and you passed your word."

"Yes, I suppose I did," agreed the little man reluctantly. Then he
burst into a sudden fury. "Damn my word, if that was all! Old Gwinne
wouldn't have me--he wouldn't touch me with a ten-foot pole. I've kept
my word to scum like you till no decent man will believe me under
oath." He threw up his hands with a tragic gesture. "Oh, I've played
the fool!" he said. "I have been a common fool!"

He turned his back deliberately to that enraged crew of murderers and
walked the length of the long hall to the back door. From his hiding
plac