where she went, after I was shot?"

"After you was shot? Who shot you? _Did she_?"

"I told you who shot me. It was them fellers."

"Then why didn't they kill you, if they wanted to? They _could_ of
finished you, couldn't they? Where's my six-shooter, Aleck--you took
it outen my house, and you know you did."

He stepped back into the tent and began to kick around among the
blankets. "There's nothing here excepting your own rifle." He came
out, unloaded the gun, smashed the lever against the nearest tree.

"You won't never need no gun no more," said he.

"I'll have to look after him, now," said Doctor Barnes, stepping
forward. He had stood looking at the crippled man, his own hands on
his hips. "He's bad off."

"Keep away--don't you touch him!" It was still the new voice of Sim
Gage that was talking now, and there was something in his tone which
made the others all fall back. All the time Sim Gage's rifle was
covering the writhing man.

"I tried to save her," whimpered Big Aleck now.

"You lie! Why did you bring her up here then? Why didn't you leave
her there--she didn't have to come." Sim Gage still was talking now
sharp, decisive. "Where is she now?"

"Good God, man, I told you I didn't know. How do I know which way
she'd run? She said she was blind--but I don't believe she was."

"_Why_ don't you?" demanded Sim Gage. "_Because she could shoot
you_?--Because she _did_ shoot you, twice? What made her? Where's my
gun? Did she take it with her after she shot you?"

The sweat broke out now on the gray and grimed forehead of the
suffering man. "I won't tell you nothing more!" he broke out. "What
right you got to arrest me? I ain't committed no crime, and you ain't
got no warrant. I want a lawyer. I want this doctor to take care of
me. I got money to get a lawyer. I don't have to answer no questions
you ask me."

"You say she went over that way?" Sim's finger was pointing across the
road in the direction of the fire.

"I told you, yes," nodded Big Aleck. And Sim Gage's own knowledge
gained from the last direction of the footprints confirmed this.

"Blind--and out all night in these mountains!" he said, his voice
shaking for the first time. "And then comes that fire. You done that,
Aleck--you know you done it."

"I told you I didn't know nothing," protested the crippled man, who now
had turned again upon his back. "I ain't a-goin' to talk. It was them
fellers."

"Some