Bancroft made a gesture of annoyance. "Curt, you talk too easily about killing. You'd make a stranger think you're a bad man of the border, instead of the decent citizen you are. For Heaven's sake, man, why don't you come to your senses, and see what an ass you'll be making of yourself if you try to carry out this fool scheme of revenge that's got hold of you? Why don't you accept his offer to pay back the money as fast as he can? Let him make restitution, and keep a whole skin; perhaps you'll save your own scalp in the bargain." The seeker after vengeance laughed blithely. "Aleck, you've no idea what this thing means to me. Why, man, you talk as if giving up that plan would be no more than changing my coat! You don't know, Aleck--why, to get the drop on Delafield and hold him while I tell him what he is in language that will scald him from head to foot, and then deal out to him the death he deserves--that's the one thing I've lived for all these fifteen years! I'm obliged to you for your advice, Aleck; but I know what I'm about." Bancroft shrank away a little as Curtis talked. His lips tightened as he picked up the revolver and sighted it at a calendar on the wall. After a moment's silence he looked the other full in the eye and said, impressively: "You forget one thing, Curt. If this man Delafield knows what you are doing--and you seem to feel sure he does--he'll be prepared for your attack, and you're not likely to have things your own way. Unless he's a fool or a coward he'll defend himself, even if he has to kill you doing it. And if he has any _sabe_ at all he'll be loaded for you when you get there, and have the drop on you before you can say a word." "Chances of war," Conrad replied serenely. "He's welcome to all he can get. But I'm betting my last dollar, and my scalp in the bargain, that he can't draw as quick as I can, nor shoot as straight. You bet your life, Aleck, when that circus comes off I'll be the star performer." "Well," said Bancroft slowly, "if you won't listen to reason I suppose you'll have to go on, hell-bent, in the gait you've struck--and take the consequences. But you're a fool to do it, and I hate to see you making such a blind ass of yourself." Curtis laughed, undisturbed. "That's all right, Aleck. I don't expect you to get the joy out of this business that I shall." He went over to Bancroft's desk and picked up the revolver, examining its sights. "They're not right, Aleck," he said. "When I get the use of my arm again I'll fix them for you. And you don't use your gun right when you want to take quick aim: you don't swing it up quickly and steadily, as if you were used to it. You ought to practise, Aleck. Out here a man never knows when he may have to defend himself. I've got to stay here several days, the doctor says; and while I'm here I'll show you a few tricks."