“I do thees thing for you,” he muttered. “The boy ees young, he ees in luff—the great passion ees on heem. Eet ees bad to keel a man, then. You—you’re ole; luff ees not for you. But I do thees thing. I get up there. You tell Kent to keep hees men from shoot me?” “I’ll ’tend to that,” Gallup said, excitedly, as he put away the purse. “All right, I go; but thees purse, I tak’ heem now!” It was on Aaron’s tongue to demur, to refuse point blank; but why be cautious? He had gold pieces enough to fill many bags. What were five hundred dollars weighed against Molly Kent? With Johnny Dice out of the way the future was unclouded. “Don’t you double-cross me,” Gallup warned as he passed the purse to the Basque. Tony did not even reply. He was gone before Aaron had caught his breath. When he had control of himself he called to Kent and the sheriff. “Madeiras has gone to bring them in,” he told them. “He’s goin’ up in back of the mine. You pass the word that he’s not to be picked off from below.” “The skunk!” Hobe growled when Kent told him what was happening. “I wouldn’t blame the boys if they did drill him. You know how they feel toward him. Better not say anythin’ to them.” It took the Basque more than an hour to get to the top. He made his plans as he moved, and they were admirable. What Charlie Paul would do was his one worry. Molly was the first to become aware of Madeiras’ presence. He was twenty-five yards above the mine at the time, wriggling along on his stomach. The girl could not move for a second, and as she stood dumfounded she saw Tony roll a small bit of rock in Johnny’s direction. It caught the boy’s attention about the same instant that he saw the girl’s signals. Charlie Paul had swung his rifle around so that it covered the Basque. Johnny knocked it down. “Don’t shoot,” he warned. “The Basque’s all right.” “All right?” Molly questioned. “Didn’t he turn his back on you?” “You don’t understand. He went to the ranch on my say-so.” With his hand the boy beckoned to Madeiras to come down. “Keep low when you cross the tailin’s,” Johnny told him. “They’ll git you from below if you ain’t careful.” The boy thought, of course, that Tony had stolen away from Kent’s camp to make his stand with the three of them. He knew he would have done the same thing had the tables been turned. Imagine his surprise when he saw the Basque kick the Indian’s rifle over the edge of the dump and heard himself ordered to throw up his hands. The order was heard down below. Men were watching. The Basque made no effort to keep out of sight. Molly moaned as she saw how Johnny had been fooled by the treacherous Madeiras. Charlie Paul was crawling after his gun. Johnny for once in his life was speechless. He tried to lift his arms, but his muscles would not obey. The Basque’s gun was not more than three feet from Johnny’s head. The two men were permitted a second in which to stare into each other’s eyes.