Biting in leisurely fashion on the new crust he had found, Lafe felt emboldened to make the conversation personal. "That's a mighty fine watch you've got there," he remarked, affably. "I suppose it went with the pistol--sort o' thrown in, like." The man put the watch back into his trousers pocket. He seemed for a moment disposed to annoyance. Then the furtive, mean grin curled over the lower part of his face. "Yes--it was thrown in," he replied, almost with a chuckle. "Come on," he added. "You can chew that bread as you go along." "But what am I to get?" the boy queried, slowly turning the crust over to select a place for the next bite. "Do I come in for any watches and silver-mounted Derringers, too?" "You jest help me for all you're worth," replied the man, after a moment's pause, "and I'll see to it you git something worth your while." "It's got to be something pretty good," said Lafe, meditatively chewing on the hard bread. "A fellow can't be expected to risk the chance of being shot for nothing." "There ain't no danger of gittin' shot," the other replied. "Well, hung, then," Lafe said impudently. "What's that you say?" the man growled, with reawakened suspicion. "Who said anything about hangin'? What kind o' nonsense are you talkin', anyway?" It might be a desperately foolish thing to do, but Lafe could not hold himself from doing it--and for that matter didn't try. [Illustration: LAFE AND THE BOUNTY-JUMPER.] "Why, they hang men caught robbing the dead on battle-fields, don't they--specially when they're bounty-jumpers to begin with?" He had called this out as swiftly as he could, holding himself in readiness as he spoke, and now he pounced downward, and clutching the musket, lifted it for defence. The man sprang forward with a quicker motion than the boy had counted upon, and before Lafe had got erect he felt the stifling grasp of big, hard fingers around his throat. CHAPTER IV. RED PETE IN CAPTIVITY. Things grew black before Lafe's eyes as the iron clutch about his throat tightened. He strove desperately to twist himself loose, using in a frantic way the wrestling tricks he knew; but the grip of the bounty-jumper was too powerful. Lafe's head seemed swelling in the effort to burst, and feeling in all his body below that fatal circlet became numb. There was room for but a single thought--this was what being choked to death meant! Afterward it never seemed to the boy that he entirely lost consciousness. He could remember that there was a violent sidewise jerk at his neck, and then the sense of intolerable squeezing there ceased. But there was still an awful buzzing inside his head, and midnight blackness, shot with interlacing lines of crazy light, spread itself indefinitely about him.