d."

"He won't!" said Burke shortly. "Where exactly is he? Tell me
that!"

"He's barkeeping for that brute Hoffstein, and taking out all his
wages in drink. I saw him three days ago. I assure you he's past
help. I believe he'd shoot himself if you took any trouble over
him. He's in a pretty desperate mood."

"Not he!" said Burke. "I'm going to have him out anyway."

Again Kelly looked at him speculatively. "Well, what's the
notion?" he asked after a moment, frankly curious. "You've never
worried after him before."

Burke's eyes were grim. "You may be sure of one thing, Donovan,"
he said, "I'm not out for pleasure this journey."

"I've noted that," observed Kelly.

"I don't want you to help me if you have anything better to do,"
pursued Burke. "I shall get what I've come for in any case."

"Oh, don't you worry yourself! I'm on," responded Kelly, with his
winning, Irish smile. "When do you want to catch your hare?
Tonight?"

"Yes; to-night," said Burke soberly. "I'll come down with you to
Hoffstein's, and if you can get him out, I'll do the rest."

"Hurrah!" crowed Kelly softly, lifting his glass. "Here's luck to
the venture!"

But though Burke drank with him, his face did not relax.

A little later they left the hotel together. A strong wind was
still blowing, sprinkling the dust of the desert everywhere. They
pushed their way against it, striding with heads down through the
swirling darkness of the night.

Hoffstein's bar was in a low quarter of the town and close to the
mine-workings. A place of hideous desolation at all times, the
whirling sandstorm made of it almost an inferno. They scarcely
spoke as they went along, grimly enduring the sand-fiend that stung
and blinded but could not bar their progress.

As they came within sight of Hoffstein's tavern, they encountered
groups of men coming away, but no one was disposed to loiter on
that night of turmoil; no one accosted them as they approached.
The place was built of corrugated iron, and they heard the sand
whipping against it as they drew near. Kelly paused within a few
yards of the entrance. The door was open and the lights of the bar
flared forth into the darkness.

"You stop here!" bawled Kelly. "I'll go in and investigate."

There was an iron fence close to them, affording some degree of
shelter from the blast. Burke stood back against it, dumbly
patient. The other man went on, and in a few seconds his short
square