of the ground by hard work, didn't
he? Leastways, Payson hadn't ort 'o use the money to rope in Dick's
girl. It ort 'o be kep' from him, anyhow, till Dick comes on the
ground his own self. That 'u'd hold up the weddin', all right, if I
know Josephine. It 'u'd be easy to steer her into refusin' to let Echo
go into a mortgiged home."

Simple-minded Bud readily accepted the wily half-breed's explanations
and surmises, and fell into the trap he was preparing. This was to
hold up the express-agent and rob him of the money Payson was
expecting, on securing which it was McKee's intention to flee the
country before Dick Lane returned to denounce him. To ascertain just
when the money came into the agent's hands, and to act as a cover in
the robbery itself, an accomplice was needed. For this purpose no man
in all the Sweetwater region was better adapted than Bud Lane. Frank
and friendly with every one, he would be trusted by the most suspicious
and cautious official in Pinal County. The fact that he had chosen
Buck McKee as an associate had already gone far to rehabilitate this
former "bad man" in the good graces of the community. Under cover of
this friendship, McKee hoped to escape suspicion of any part in the
homicide he contemplated. For it was murder, foul, unprovoked murder
that was in the black soul of the half-breed. He intended to
incriminate Bud so deeply as to put it beyond all thought that he would
confess.

Young Lane, passionately loyal to his brother, was ready for anything
that would delay Payson's marriage to Echo Allen. Together with the
wild joy that sprang up in his heart at the thought that his brother
was alive, was entwined a violent hatred against his former employer.
In the fierce turbulence within his soul, generated by the meeting of
these great emotions, he was impelled to enter upon a mad debauch, in
which McKee abetted and joined him. Filling up on bad whisky, they
rode through the streets of Florence, yelling and shooting their "guns"
like crazy men. It was while they were engaged in this spectacular
exhibition of horsemanship, gun-play, and vocalization that Bud's
sweetheart rode into town to execute some commissions in preparation
for Echo Allen's wedding. Already "blue" over the thought that her own
wedding was far in the dim future, poor Polly was cast into the depths
of despair and disgust by the drunken riot in which her prospective
husband was indulging with her particular a