his toasting, but a moment later
restlessly raised his head, and scrutinized the lower reach of the
coulee. Looking over his shoulder he submitted the upper reach to like
scrutiny. Then he scanned the opposite rim while the bacon shrivelled
and the little red flames licked at the knife blade. Finally as if drawn
by some unseen force he deliberately raised his face upward--and found
himself staring straight into the eyes of the Texan who had thrust the
gun back into its holster. Seconds passed--long tense seconds during
which the man's hands went limp, and the knife dropped unheeded into
the fire, and the bacon burned to a charcoal in the little red flame.
His lower jaw had sagged, exposing long yellow fangs, but his eyes held
with terrible fascination upon the cold stare of the Texan.

"My Gawd!" he muttered, thickly when he could endure the silence no
longer, "I--we--thought you was drownded."

"Oh, we did, did we? But we was afraid I wasn't so we went ahead an'
spread those bills. Well, I'm here--do you want that reward?"

The question seemed to inspire Long Bill with a gleam of hope. He
struggled to his feet: "Lord, no! Not me, Tex. I just tuck them papers
'long 'cause----"

"Where's the girl?"

"What girl--you mean the pilgrim's woman? I donno--s'elp me--I donno
nawthin' 'bout it."

"Where's Purdy?"

"Who? Purdy? Him? I donno. I ain't seen him. I ain't seen him fer--it's
goin' on a hell of a while. Last time I seen him----"

The sentence was never finished. Lightly as a cat the body of the Texan
shot downward and hardly had his feet touched the ground than a gloved
fist drove straight into Long Bill's face. The man crashed heavily
backward and lay moaning and whimpering like a hurt puppy. Stepping to
his side the Texan kicked him in the ribs: "Get up!" he commanded.

With a grunt of pain, the man struggled to a sitting posture. A thin
trickle of blood oozed from the corner of his mouth. He raised a shaky
hand to his face and inserting a long black nailed forefinger between
his puffed lips, ran it along the inner edge of his gums and drew forth
a yellow tooth. Leaning forward he spat out a mouthful of blood, and
another tooth clicked audibly upon the rocks. With the other hand he
felt gingerly of his side: "You've knocked out my teeth," he snivelled,
"an' broke my rib."

"An' I ain't only just started. I'm goin' to knock out the rest of 'em,
an' break the rest of your ribs--one at a time. You've got your