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100 nearly fainted, then. But as I gather it, after you shot Bill Dozier you simply sat on your horse and waited. Did you feel like fainting then?"

"No," explained Andrew hastily. "I wanted to go after them and shoot 'em all. But that was because they'd hounded me and chased me. They could have rushed me and taken me prisoner easily, but they wanted to shoot me from a distance—and it made me mad to see them work it. I—I hated them all, and I had a reason for it. Curse them!"

He added hurriedly: "But I've no grudge against anybody. All I want is a chance to live quiet and clean."

There was a faint sigh from Allister.

"Lanning," he murmured, "I'll tell you a story. Away east from here there was a young chap of a mighty good family, but rather gay habits—nothing vicious. He simply spent a little too much money, and his father didn't approve of it. Well, one day his father gave him twenty dollars to take to another man. Mind that—just twenty dollars. Our young fellow started out, but in the crowd his pocket was picked. It made him sick when he found that he hadn't that money. He knew that his father would put it down to a lie. His father would think that he'd spent that money on himself, and the idea of another row with the governor made the boy sick inside. Just the way you felt about fighting.

"He told himself he couldn't go home until he had that money back. He couldn't face his father, you see? Well, he was pretty young and pretty foolish. He went into an alley that evening, pulled a cloth over his face with eyeholes in it, and waited until a well-dressed fellow came through. He held up that man by putting a little toy pistol under the man's nose. Then he went