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 courts and robbin' honest men! I've more'n half a notion to blow holes in you, you dog! If I don't on the train, I'll hev you off of the cars at Jatan and make you swear to quit for ever."

The slaver ran down his jaws from the angles of his mouth.

"The man's mad," said Bailey. "I wish, I wish I'd not refused a gun."

But if he had made a motion he would have been a dead man before he could draw any weapon. Nothing but the steady strength of quiet endurance saved him. He heard Crowle talk and never took in what he said.

"I'm to get off the cars at Jatan and swear," he said to himself. "I'll not get off. I'll swear nothing. The day after to-morrow I'll go back to Painted Rock, and—and I'll buy a gun."

White came through the car from the caboose at the end of the train three times, and each time the madman opposite Bailey hid his weapon and grinned hideously.

"It's the darkest night I ever saw," said