Sim himself passed for a moment, hurriedly, to the car which had brought his party up. He had left the little dog tied there, but now heard it whining, and stopped to loosen it. It ran about, barking. Head down, Sim Gage stumbled off, following a trail which he half thought he saw, but he lost it on the pine needles, and came back, bitter of heart, once more to face the man who lay helpless on the ground--the man who now he knew was his enemy, not to be forgiven or spared. "Where is she?" he said to Aleck once more. "It was her trail, I know it. Tell me the truth now, while you can talk." "You was follering right the way she went, far as I know," moaned Aleck. "How kin I tell where she went, after I was shot?" "After you was shot? Who shot you? _Did she_?" "I told you who shot me. It was them fellers." "Then why didn't they kill you, if they wanted to? They _could_ of finished you, couldn't they? Where's my six-shooter, Aleck--you took it outen my house, and you know you did." He stepped back into the tent and began to kick around among the blankets. "There's nothing here excepting your own rifle." He came out, unloaded the gun, smashed the lever against the nearest tree. "You won't never need no gun no more," said he. "I'll have to look after him, now," said Doctor Barnes, stepping forward. He had stood looking at the crippled man, his own hands on his hips. "He's bad off." "Keep away--don't you touch him!" It was still the new voice of Sim Gage that was talking now, and there was something in his tone which made the others all fall back. All the time Sim Gage's rifle was covering the writhing man. "I tried to save her," whimpered Big Aleck now. "You lie! Why did you bring her up here then? Why didn't you leave her there--she didn't have to come." Sim Gage still was talking now sharp, decisive. "Where is she now?" "Good God, man, I told you I didn't know. How do I know which way she'd run? She said she was blind--but I don't believe she was." "_Why_ don't you?" demanded Sim Gage. "_Because she could shoot you_?--Because she _did_ shoot you, twice? What made her? Where's my gun? Did she take it with her after she shot you?" The sweat broke out now on the gray and grimed forehead of the suffering man. "I won't tell you nothing more!" he broke out. "What right you got to arrest me? I ain't committed no crime, and you ain't got no warrant. I want a lawyer. I want this doctor to take care of me. I got money to get a lawyer. I don't have to answer no questions you ask me." "You say she went over that way?" Sim's finger was pointing across the road in the direction of the fire. "I told you, yes," nodded Big Aleck. And Sim Gage's own knowledge gained from the last direction of the footprints confirmed this. "Blind--and out all night in these mountains!" he said, his voice shaking for the first time. "And then comes that fire. You done that, Aleck--you know you done it."