I don't know how long the silent watch was maintained. One by one the night noises of the camp died down and the stillness of the solitudes enveloped the commissary. The responsibility I was carrying should have kept me awake, but it didn't. If the coming of sleep had been gradual I might have fought it off, but the healthy life of the camp had given me leave to eat like a workingman and to fall asleep like one when the day was ended. So after the stillness had fairly laid hold of me I was gone before I knew it. When I opened my eyes it was with a startled conviction that I was no longer alone in the little boxed-in office. In the murky indoor darkness of a moonless night I could barely distinguish the surroundings, the shelf-desk, the black bulk of the old safe, the three-legged stool, and at the end of the room the gray patch which placed the single window. Then, with a cold sweat starting from every pore, I saw the humped figure of a man beside the safe. As nearly as I could make out, he was sitting with his back to the wall and his knees drawn up, and by listening intently I could hear his measured breathing. It required a greater amount of brute courage than I had thought it would to spring to a sitting posture on the cot and cover the squatting figure with the rifle slewed into position across my knees. The man made no move to obey when I ordered him to hold up his hands. Then I spoke again. "I've got the drop on you, Dorgan--or Murphey; whichever your name is," I said. "If you move I shall kill you. You see, I know who you are and what you are here for." A voice, harsh but neither threatening nor pleading, came out of the shadows beside the safe. "You ain't tellin' me nothin' new, pally. I spotted you a good while back, and I knowed you'd lamped me. You was lookin' f'r me to bust in here to-night?" "I was. After you followed me to Cripple Creek and back I knew about what to expect." "And you was layin' f'r me alone?--when you could 'a' had Collins and Nixon and half a dozen more if yous 'd squealed f'r 'em?" "I didn't need any better help than this," I answered, patting the stock of the Winchester. "The jig's up, Dorgan. You can't crack this safe while I'm here and alive. I suppose you got in by the window: you can go out the same way." "You're aimin' to turn me loose?" said the voice, and now I fancied there was a curious trembly hoarseness in it. "You heard what I said." "Listen a minute, pally: if you'll hold that gun right stiddy where it is and let out a yell 'r two, you can earn five hundred doughboys. Ye didn't know that, did you?" "I know you broke jail and skipped for it, but I didn't know how much the warden was willing to pay to get you back." "It's five hundred bones, all right. Study a minute: don't you want the five hundred?" "No; not bad enough to send you back to 'stir' for it."