Stone glanced at the Lawton woman. She was grinning mirthlessly at his discomfiture. "What have you been stuffing this fellow here with?" he asked her contemptuously. "Just what he's dishin' up to you now," she told him. "It's a lot of infernal lies, and you know it." But she only shook her head and laughed again, shortly. Stone made a very creditable fight. A man does not throw up the results of years of work without a strong protest. He treated it lightly, at first, then seriously. Then he threatened. "I've got a good deal of power myself," he told Cairness angrily; "I can roast you in the press so that you can't hold up your head." "I don't believe you can," Cairness said; "but you might try it, if it will give you any pleasure. Only you must make haste, because you've got to get out in three days." "I can shoot, myself, when it comes to that," suggested Stone. Cairness said that he would of course have to take chances on that. "You might kill me, or I might kill you. I'm a pretty fair shot. However, it wouldn't pay you to kill me, upon the whole, and you must take everything into consideration." He was still twisting the curled end of his small mustache and half closing his eyes in the way that Stone had long since set down as asinine. "My friend Mr. Taylor would still be alive. And if you were to hurt him,--he's a very popular man,--it might be bad for your standing in the community. It wouldn't hurt me to kill you, particularly, on the other hand. You are not so popular anyway, and I haven't very much to lose." Then the journalist tried entreaty. He had a wife and children. Cairness reminded him that Kirby had had a wife and children, too. "Well, I didn't kill them, did I?" he whined. "Not exactly, no. But you were an accessory after the fact." "Why are you so all-fired anxious to vindicate the law?" He dropped easily into phrases. Cairness assured him that he was not. "It is not my mission on earth to straighten out the territories, heaven be praised. This is purely a personal matter, entirely so. You may call it revenge, if you like. Lawton's in jail all safe, as you know. I got him there, and if he gets out anyway, I'll put him back again on this count." Mrs. Lawton started forward in her chair. "What's he in for now? Ain't it for this?" she demanded. "For destruction of government property," Cairness told her, and there was just the faintest twinkle between his lids. "I didn't know all these interesting details about the Kirbys until you told me, Mrs. Lawton." She sat with her jaw hanging, staring at him, baffled, and he went on. "I've got Lawton jailed, as I was saying. I'll have you out of the country in three days, and as for Mrs. Lawton, I'll keep an eye on her. I'll know where she is, in case I need her at any time. But I'm not fighting women." He stood up. "I'll see you off inside of three days then, Stone," he said amicably. "Where do you want me to go?" he almost moaned, and finished with an oath.