"All right, I want you to know that. I ain’t that kind, you know. But Kouka--well, I got him, but I had to, Mr. Marriott; I had to. You see that, don’t you? He agitated me to it; he agitated me to it." He repeated the word thus strangely employed a number of times, as if it gave him relief and comfort. "Yes, sir, he agitated me to it. I had to; that’s all. It was a case of self-defense." Marriott was silent for a few moments. Then he asked: "Have you talked to the police?" Archie laughed. "They give me the third degree, but--there was nothin’ doin’." Marriott was relieved to find that he did not have to face the usual admission the police wring from their subjects, but Archie went on: "Of course, that don’t make no difference. They can frame up a confession all right." "They’d hardly do anything that desperate," said Marriott, though not with the greatest assurance. "Well," said Archie, "I wouldn’t put it past ’em." Marriott finished his cigarette in a reflective silence, dropped it to the floor and imitated Archie in the care with which he extinguished it. Then he sighed, straightened up and said: "Well, Archie, let’s get down to business; tell me the particulars." And Archie narrated the events that led up to the tragedy. "I wanted to see the old people--and the kids--and Gus." He was silent then, and Marriott did not break the silence. "Say, Mr. Marriott," the boy suddenly asked, "where is Gus?" "I don’t know." "What’s become of her? Do you know that?" "N-no--," said Marriott. He felt that Archie was eying him shrewdly. "You know," said Archie in the lowest tone, "I’m afraid, I’ve got a kind of hunch--that she’s--gone wrong." Marriott feared his own silence, but he could not speak. "Hell!" Archie exclaimed, in a tone that dismissed the question. "Well, I wanted to go home, and I goes, Curly and me. Kouka followed; he plants himself across the street, gets the harness bulls, and they goes gunning. Curly, he sees him--Curly can see anything. We lammed. The coppers misses us; and we gets on a freight-car. They cuts that car out, and we stays in it all night. Damn it! Did you ever hear o’ such luck? Now did you, Mr. Marriott?" Marriott owned that he had not. "In the morning," Archie went on, "they lagged us and we ran--they began to shoot, and--" He stopped. "Well," he said very quietly. "I had my rod, and barked at Kouka. I got him."