He had torn himself almost free; one man still clung to him, and he was trying to shake the fellow off, that he might hit him effectively, when a great weight seemed to fall on his head, blackness surrounded him, and he pitched face down on the floor. CHAPTER XIV TEE VOICE OF THE COYOTE When Sanderson regained consciousness he was lying on his back on a board floor. His head seemed to have been smashed, he was dizzy and weak, but he sat up and looked around him. Then he grinned wanly. He was in jail. A heavy, barred door was in front of him; turning his head he saw an iron-grated window behind him. Door and window were set in heavy stone walls; two other stone walls, with a narrow iron cot set against one of them, rose blankly on either side. Sanderson got up, reeling, and went to the window. Darkness had come; he could see Okar's lights flickering and winking at him from the buildings that skirted the street. Various sounds reached his ears--Okar's citizens were enjoying themselves. Sanderson did not watch the lights long. He walked to the cot, seated himself on its edge, rested his elbows on his knees and his chin in the upturned palms of his hands and reflected on what had occurred to him. Remembering the four thousand dollars in bills of large denomination that Burroughs had paid him when leaving the Pig-Pen, his hand went to the money belt around his waist. Belt and money were gone! Sanderson got up again, walked to the door and called. A heavy-featured man slouched down the corridor and halted near the door. "Awake, eh?" he grinned. "Dale sure did hand it to you--now, didn't he? Well," he added as Sanderson's lips straightened at his words, "what's eatin' you?" "I had a belt with some money in it--four thousand. What's become of it?" "Four thousand!" the man jeered. "That bump on the head is still affectin' you, I reckon. Four thousand--shucks!" He laughed. "Well, I ain't seen it--if that's any consolation to you. If you'd had it when you come here I'd sure seen it." "Who brought me here?" "Dale and his first deputy--the guy you poked in the stummick, over in the Okar Hotel. They tell me you fi't like hell! What's Dale got ag'in' you? Be sure was some het up about you." Sanderson did not answer. He turned his back to the jailer and walked to the cot, again sitting on its edge. He heard the jailer sniff contemptuously, but he paid no attention to him. Prominent in Sanderson's thoughts was the realization that Dale had taken his money. He knew that was the last of it--Dale would not admit taking it. Sanderson had intended to use the four thousand on the Double A irrigation project. The sum, together with the three thousand he meant to draw from the Okar bank, would have been enough to make a decent start.