rnor Megales. Ho, ho! Our birdie must
speak even if he doesn't sing." And with that as a parting shot the man
clanged the door to after him and locked it.

"You never told me, Bucky. You have been trying to deceive me," she
groaned.

He shrugged his shoulders. "What was the use, girlie? I knew it would
worry you, and do no good. Better let you sleep in peace, I thought."

"While you kept watch alone and waited through the long night. Oh,
Bucky!" She crept close to him and put her arms around his neck,
holding him tight, as if in the hope that she could keep him against the
untoward fate that was reaching for him. "Oh, Bucky, if I could only die
for you!"

"Don't give up, little friend. I don't. Somehow I'll slip out, and then
you'll have to live for me and not die for me."

"What is it that the governor wants you to say that you won't?"

"Oh, he wants me to sell our friends. I told him to go climb a giant
cactus."

"Of course you couldn't do that," she sighed regretfully.

He laughed. "Well, hardly, and call myself a white man."

"But--" She blanched at the alternative. "Oh, Bucky, we must do
something. We must--we must."

"It ain't so bad as it looks, honey. You want to remember that Mike
O'Halloran is on deck. What's the matter with him knocking out a
home run and bringing us both in. I put a heap of confidence in that
red-haided Irishman," he answered cheerfully.

"You say that just to--to give me courage. You don't really think he can
do anything," she said wanly.

"That's just what I think, Curly. Some men have a way of getting things
done. When you look at O'Halloran you feel this, the same as you do when
you look at Val Collins. Oh, he'll get us out all right. I've been in
several tighter holes than this one." His mention of Collins suggested a
diversion, and he took up a less distressing theme lightly. "Wonder what
Val is doing at this precise moment. I'll bet he's beginning to make
things warm for Wolf Leroy's bunch of miscreants. We'll have the robbers
of the Limited behind the bars within two weeks now, or I miss my
guess."

He had succeeded in diverting her attention better than he had dared to
hope. Her big eyes fixed on his much as if he had raised for her some
forgotten spectre.

"That's another thing I must tell you. I didn't think to before. But I
want you to know all about me now. Don't think me bad, Bucky. I'm only a
girl. I couldn't help myself," she pleaded.

"What is it you have