"So?" And Taggart, swinging heavily, knocked him down again, and then reached out for the can that held sugar and sweetened his coffee. Shipton sniggered. "You're a corker, Jim!" he declared. "Me," acknowledged Taggart heavily, "I am what I am. But I never laid down for a Mex breed yet, and I ain't going to." Joe lay where he had fallen. His body was pain-wracked, for when Jim Taggart struck in wrath he struck mightily, being a mighty man physically, and hard. Joe's swart skin had paled; his eyes started from his head; he feared, and not without reason, that a third blow like that would kill him. And he knew that Jim Taggart was no man to lie awake because he had killed another man. "I got thirs'," said Joe thickly. He was sitting up, on the floor. "Give me cup water!" "What did I tell you, Joe?" Taggart grinned at him. "I got you. Got you right." "I burnin' up," said Joe weakly. "Maybe you killin' me. Give me drink water." "I got you, Joe," said Taggart speculatively. No mockery now; just a vast, deep satisfaction. "I half believe one good kick in the belly would settle you and you'd tell all you know. I got a hunch...." "Go slow, Jim." This from the avaricious Young Gallup. "No sense killing him, seeing you haven't found out a thing." "You're right, Gal. Well, give him a drink, then; half a cup of water and let him think things over.... If he opens up then, O. K. If he don't we'll find the way to open him up." "Let me go to the spring," said Joe. By now he was on his feet. "I was jus' goin' for water when you come. The spring, she's right there. You can see I don't run away...." "Go scoop him up a can of water, Cliff," said Taggart. "You sit tight, Joe. You don't go out to-night unless we take you out to put you in a hole!" "_Now!_" whispered Deveril sharply. "Now we've got to crawl for it!" But Cliff Shipton demurred, saying surlily: "I'm tired out, and I'm sore and stiff and stove-up. Let him go without his water." "We were crazy for waiting so long!" complained Deveril. "Hurry!" In the dugout Gallup was saying slowly, after his ponderous fashion: "I'll go get him his water. After that, like you say, Jim, he'll open up--wide! Or, if he don't, I'll break his jaw-bone with my boot heel.... Where's a can?" Already Babe Deveril had wormed his way out of the willows and began creeping about the edge of the tiny thicket that was farthest from Joe's cabin. Lynette, feeling weak and sick, followed him like his own shadow. Thus they skirted the brushy fringe of the spring. Then Gallup, carrying his can, came out. Deveril dropped flat and lay motionless, his body hidden, at least to careless eyes, by the spring willows. Lynette dropped flat just behind him. She knew that again Deveril was ready to leap and strike, mercilessly hard, if Gallup came too near. It was almost an even chance whether Gallup would come their way or not.... Lynette, cold and tired and hungry and at last afraid, shivered.