"’Nds up, Greener!" he snapped, viciously, remembering his promise to Sheriff Nolan. "Miss Joyce, if you make any trouble it ’ll cost him his life." "Turned highwayman, eh?" sneered Greener, keenly alert for the necessary fraction of a second’s carelessness on the part of the other. He was gunman enough to need no more. "Miss Joyce, will you please ride along? I want to talk to him alone," said Johnny, his eyes fastened intently on those of his enemy. "Yes, Norah; that’s best. I ’ll join you in a few minutes," urged Greener, smiling at her. Johnny had a sudden thought and his warning was grave and cold. "Don’t get very far away an’ don’t make no sounds, or signals; if you do it ’ll be th’ quickest way to _need_ ’em. He ’ll pay for any mistakes like that." "You coward!" she cried, angrily, and then delivered an impromptu lecture that sent the blood surging into the fugitive’s wan cheeks. But she obeyed, slowly, at Greener’s signal, and when she was out of sight Johnny spoke. "Greener, yo ’re not going to marry her. You know what you are, you know how yore first wife died—an’ I don’t intend that Norah shall be abused as the other was. I ’m a fugitive, hard pressed; I ’m weak from want of food, and from hardships; all I have left is a slim chance of gettin’ away. I ’ve reached the point where I can’t harm myself by shooting you, an’ I ’m goin’ to do it rather than let any trouble come to her. But you’ll get an even break, because I ain’t never going to shoot a man when he ’s helpless. Got anything to say?" "Yes; yo ’re th’ biggest fool I ever saw," replied Greener. "Yo’re locoed through an’ through; an’ I ’m goin’ to take great pleasure in putting you away. But I want to thank you for one thing you did. You were drunk at the time an’ may not remember it. When you hit Nolan for talking like he did I liked you for it, an’ I ’m goin’ to tell you so. Now we ’ll get at th’ matter before us so I can move along." Neither had paid any attention to Norah in the earnestness and keen-eyed scrutiny of each other and the first sign they had of her actions was when she threw her arms around Greener’s neck and shielded him. He was too much of a man to fire from cover and Johnny realized it while the other tried to get her to leave the scene. "I won’t leave you to be murdered—I _know_ what it means, I _know_ it," she cried. "My place is here, and you can’t deny your wife’s first request! What will I do without you! Oh, dear, let me stay! I _will_ stay! What woman ever had such a wedding day before! Dear, dear, what can I do? Tell me what to do!"