"I'm afraid not, but he has got an ugly bump, and lost some blood, his head struck a rock when he fell. It will be a while, I imagine, before he wakes up. How about your man?" He crossed over and bent down above the fellow, feeling with his hands in the darkness. "I reckon he's a goner, Cap," he admitted, as though surprised. "Gosh, I must'r hit the cuss harder than I thought--fair caved in his hed, the pore devil. I reckon it's no great loss ter noboddy." "But are you sure he is dead? That will put a different aspect on all this, Kennedy!" I exclaimed gravely, facing him as he arose to his feet. "That and the belief I now have that Kirby has already consummated his plan of marriage with Miss Beaucaire." "You mean he has--" "Yes, that he has forced the girl to assent to some form of ceremony, probably legal in this country. I overheard enough between him and Rale to suspect it, at least, and she is even now under the influence of some drug. She hasn't spoken, nor does she seem to know what is going on about her. They strapped her into the saddle." "The hell they did." "It has been a hellish affair all the way through, and the only way in which I can serve her, if this is so, is by getting her away--as far away as possible, and where this devil can never find her again. She's got to be saved not only from him, but also from the scandal of it." He stood silent, little more than a shadow before me, his head bent, as though struggling with a new thought, a fresh understanding. "I reckon I kin see thet, sir, now." His voice somehow contained a new note of respect, as though the truth had suddenly dawned upon him, "I didn't just get hold o' things rightly afore; why an army offercer like yer should be mixed up in this sorter job. But I reckon I do now--yer in love with her yerself; ain't thet it, sir?" "Yes, Tim," I confessed frankly, and not at all sorry to make the avowal. "That is the truth. Now what would you do if you were in my place?" "Just exactly whut yer doin', I reckon," he returned heartily. "Only maybe I'd kill thet dirty skunk afore I went away; damned if I wudn't." I shook my head. "No, not in cold-blood. I wouldn't have been sorry if he had died fighting, but murder is not my line. He deserves death, no doubt, but it is not possible for me to kill him lying there helpless. What bothers me most right now is your case." "Mine? Lord, what's the matter with me?" "Considerable, I should say. You cannot be left here alone to face the result of this night's work. If Gaskins is dead from the blow you struck him, these two fellows will swear your life away just for revenge. Even if you told the whole story, what chance would you have? That would only expose us, and still fail to clear you. It would merely be your word against theirs--you would have no witnesses, unless we were caught." "I reckon thet's true; I wasn't thinkin' 'bout it."