"You was thinkin’ of goin’ right off, right now. No, it wasn’t to get in ahead of me at the Cabin Mine. I ’m beginnin’ to guess that Apache Kid did n’t let you know so much as that. But you was just feelin’ so sick and sorry like that you thought o’ gettin’ up quiet and takin’ my hoss there and——" He was watching my face as he spoke, peering up at me and sniffing. With a kick he got the fire into a blaze, but without taking his eyes from me. Then, "No, you was n’t thinkin’ that, either," he said, in a voice as of disappointment that his power of mind-reading seemed at fault. "Derned if I dew know what you was thinkin’," he acknowledged. "Oh, you ’re deeper than most," he went on, "but I ’ll get to know you yet. Yes, siree; I ’ll see right through you yet." He lay down after this vehement talk, as though exhausted, wiping the sweat from his brow where it gleamed in the little furrows of leathery skin. He was not a pretty man, I assure you. A feeling as of pride came over me to think that this evil man was willing to take my word that I would not meddle him in his sleep, as I saw him close his eyes once more,—this time really asleep, I think. But to attempt to return to Apache Kid’s camp I now was assured in my mind would be a folly. At a merest movement of mine Canlan might awaken, and if he suspected that I entertained a hope of at least one of my late companions being alive, he might himself be shaken in his belief in the deadly accuracy of his aim. I pictured him waking to find me stealing away to Apache’s camp and stealthily following me up. I even pictured our arrival at the further shore—the still glowing fire, both my companions sitting up bleeding and dazed and trying to tend each other, Canlan marching up to them while they were still in that helpless predicament and blowing their brains from his Winchester’s mouth. So I sat still where I was and eventually dozed a little myself, till morning came to the tree-tops and slipped down into the valley and glowed down from the sky, and then Canlan awoke fairly and stretched himself and yawned a deal and moaned, "God, God, God!"—three times. And I thought to myself that this reptile of a man might well cry on God on waking that morning.