The sun climbed to the zenith. It grew intensely hot in the chamber. Twice during the afternoon the Judge asked for water, and each time he received the answer he had received before. He did not ask for food, for he felt it would not be given him. At sundown his captor entered the chamber and gave him a meager draught from the canteen. Then he withdrew and stood on the ledge in front of the door, looking out into the darkening plains, and watching him, a conviction of the futility of resisting him seized the Judge. He stood framed in the opening of the chamber, the lines of his bold, strong face prominent in the dusk, the rifle held loosely in the crook of his left arm, the right hand caressing the stock, his shoulders squared, his big, lithe, muscular figure suggesting magnificent physical strength, as the light in his eyes, the set of his head and the firm lines of his mouth, brought a conviction of rare courage and determination. The sight of him thrilled the Judge; he made a picture that sent the Judge's thoughts skittering back to things primitive and heroic. In an earlier day the Judge had dreamed of being like him, and the knowledge that he had fallen far short of realizing his ideal made him shiver with self-aversion. He stifled a moan--or tried to and did not succeed, for it reached Trevison's ears and he turned quickly. "Did you call, Judge?" "Yes, yes!" whispered the Judge, hoarsely. "I want--to tell you everything! I have longed to tell you all along!" An hour later they were sitting on the edge of the ledge, their feet dangling, the abyss below them, the desert stars twinkling coldly above them; around them the indescribable solitude of a desert night filled with mystery, its vague, haunting, whispering voice burdened with its age-old secrets. Trevison had an arm around the Judge's shoulder. Their voices mingled--the Judge's low, quavering; Trevison's full, deep, sympathetic. After a while a rider appeared out of the starlit haze of the plains below them. The Judge started. Trevison laughed. "It's Clay Levins, Judge. I've been watching him for half an hour. He'll stay here with you while I go after the record. Under the bottom drawer, eh?" Levins hallooed to them. Trevison answered, and he and the Judge walked forward to meet Levins at the crest of the slope. "Slicker'n a whistle!" declared Levins, answering the question Trevison put to him. "I mailed the damn letter an' come back on the train that brought it to him!" He grinned felinely at the Judge. "I reckon you're a heap dry an' hungry by this time?" "The Judge has feasted," said Trevison. "I'm going after the record. You're to stay here with the Judge until I return. Then the three of us will ride to Las Vegas, where we will take a train to Santa Fe, to turn the record over to the Circuit Court."