Again the wrinkled hand of the ranchman lifted in a gesture that included all space. “The world’s before you,” he said ironically. “The peace of the hills go with you while you hunt for a nice lonesome gulch as a coffin.” “What do I get out of it if we do business? Or do youse figure on workin’ me for a sucker?” Jake had won, and he knew it. “Now you’re talkin’ sense, my friend. You’ll find me no tightwad. I pay for what I get, and I pay big.” An ominous flash of warning was in his eyes as he leaned forward and spoke slowly and softly. “But if you throw me down--if there’s a finger crook about you that ain’t on the level with me--better say yore prayers backward and forward. No man ever double-crossed Jake Prowers an’ got away with it. It ain’t being done in this neck of the woods.” Hardy villain though he was, Cig felt a shiver go down his spine. He was superstitious, as all criminals are. He had the feeling that some one was walking on his grave, that this wrinkled old devil had been appointed by fate to put a period to his evil ways and days. He shook off the wave of foreboding and slouched forward, slipping the automatic into his coat pocket. “I’ll play square, boss, if you do. See me through an’ I’ll go the limit for you. It’s a bargain.” Jake shook hands on it. “Done, by jiminy by jinks,” he said in his high weak voice. Cig was puzzled and a little annoyed. How had he ever been fooled into thinking that this inoffensive little specimen was dangerous? It was written on him that he would not hurt a fly. CHAPTER XV THE HOMESTEADER SERVES NOTICE In later years the man who had called himself Tug Jones looked back on the days and nights that followed as a period of unmitigated dejection and horror. The craving for the drug was with him continually. If he had had a supply on hand, he would have yielded a hundred times to the temptation to use it. But he had burned the bridges behind him. There was no way to get the stuff without going in person to a town of some size. This meant not only a definite surrender of the will, but a promise of relief that could not be fulfilled inside of twenty-four hours at the earliest. Just now this stretch of time was a period of torment as endless as a year. Somehow he stuck it out, though he spent much of his time in an inferno of feverish desire. He tried to kill the appetite with work. Merrick, moving to and fro with a keen eye on the men, observed that the foreman was sloughing his work and letting it fall on Jones. At the end of the week, Merrick discharged him and raised the former tramp to his place as foreman. Jones accepted the promotion without thanks. He knew he had earned it, but he did not care whether he received it or not.