up the bar:
"Howdy, Sam! Come and have a drink." His jovial tone and apparent
ignorance of danger prolonged Mink's moment of indecision. The third man
thought Kelley unaware of his danger, but did not have the courage to
utter a sound.

The marshal, perceiving certain death in the assassin's eyes, was about
to whirl in a desperate effort to get at least one shot at him, when
something happened! Some one caromed against the screen. It toppled and
fell upon the gambler, disconcerting his aim. His bullet went wide, and
Kelley was upon him like a tiger before he could recover control of his
weapon, and they both went to the sawdust together.

Now came a singular revelation of the essential cowardice of the
desperado. Deprived of his revolver and helpless in Kelley's great
hands, he broke down. White, trembling, drooling with terror, he pleaded
for his life. "Don't shoot--don't kill me!" he repeated over and over.

"I ought to kill you," argued Kelley, with a reflective hesitation which
wrought his captive to a still greater frenzy of appeal.

"I beg--I beg," he whined. "Don't shoot!"

Amazed and disgusted with the man's weakness, Kelley kicked him in the
ribs. "Get up!" he said, shortly.

Mink arose, but no sooner was he on his feet than his courage returned.
"I'll have your heart for this," he said, venomously. Then his mind took
a sudden turn. "Who pushed that screen onto me?" he asked. "I'll kill
the man who did that."

"You'll have time to figure out that problem in the quiet of 'the jug,'"
said Kelley. "Come along."

At the door of the calaboose the gambler braced himself. "I won't go in
there!" he declared. "I won't be jugged--I'll die right here--"

Kelley's answer was a jerk, a twist, and a sudden thrust, which landed
the redoubtable boaster in the middle of his cell. "You can die inside
if you want to," he said, and turned the key on him. "My responsibility
ends right here."

IV

The street was crowded with excited men and women as Kelley came back up
the walk. One or two congratulated him on his escape from sudden death,
but the majority resented him as "the hired bouncer" of the land-boomers
in the town.

"Who pushed that screen?" was the question which everybody asked of
Kelley.

"I didn't see," he responded. "I was _busy_ just about that time."

In truth he had only glimpsed a darting figure, but one he knew! Who
else but Rosa Lemont could have been so opportune and so effective in
her acti