lent, "after mine hit him."

Then he leaped back through the door.

"Keep 'em back one minute, Lee, an' then after me!" he said as he ran.
Haines stood in the door with folded arms. He knew that no one would
dare to move a hand.

Two doors slammed at the same moment--the front door as Silent leaped
into the safety of the night, and the rear door as Whistling Dan
rushed into the house. He stood at the entrance from the kitchen to
the dining-room half crouched, and swaying from the suddenness with
which he had checked his run. He saw the sprawled form of Tex Calder
on the floor and the erect figure of Lee Haines just opposite him.

"For God's sake!" screamed Gus Morris, "don't shoot, Haines! He's done
nothin'. Let him go!"

"My life--or his!" said Haines savagely. "He's not a man--he's a
devil!"

Dan was laughing low--a sound like a croon.

"Tex," he said, "I'm goin' to take him alive for you!"

As if in answer the dying man stirred on the floor. Haines went for
his gun, a move almost as lightning swift as that of Jim Silent, but
now far, far too late. The revolver was hardly clear of its holster
when Whistling Dan's weapon spoke. Haines, with a curse, clapped his
left hand over his wounded right forearm, and then reached after his
weapon as it clattered to the floor. Once more he was too late. Dan
tossed his gun away with a snarl like the growl of a wolf; cleared the
table at a leap, and was at Haines's throat. The bandit fought back
desperately, vainly. One instant they struggled erect, swaying, the
next Haines was lifted bodily, and hurled to the floor. He writhed,
but under those prisoning hands he was helpless.

The sheriff headed the rush for the scene of the struggle, but Dan
stopped them.

"All you c'n do," he said, "is to bring me a piece of rope."

Jacqueline came running with a stout piece of twine which he twisted
around the wrists of Haines. Then he jerked the outlaw to his feet,
and stood close, his face inhumanly pale.

"If he dies," he said, pointing with a stiff arm back at the prostrate
figure of Tex Calder, "you--you'll burn alive for it!"

The sheriff and two of the other men turned the body of Calder on his
back. They tore open his shirt, and Jacqueline leaned over him with
a basin of water trying to wipe away the ever recurrent blood which
trickled down his breast. Dan brushed them away and caught the head of
his companion in his arms.

"Tex!" he moaned, "Tex! Open your eyes, partne