It was close to five o'clock before the battering-ram was finished. The men scattered to seek rest in the shade. The deputation which had been sent for water and provisions arrived. Fires were built, and preparations made for the evening meal. The cow-punchers cast curious glances at Allen, as he sat and talked to Sam Hogg, Toothpick, and Snippets. They shook their heads, wonderingly. "He ain't got no chance of comin' out of that place, unless he's carried, yet look at him over there. The others who ain't riskin' nothin' a-tall is plumb gloomy and gravelike, while he is happy as a kid," pronounced one admirer. The sun hung low over the western hills; then went down with a rush, and its farewell painted the sky in a thousand brilliant colors. Dusk softened the flaming canvas to soft pastels, and then darkness fell over them swiftly, like a velvet, all-concealing mantle. The men talked in hushed whispers, cleaned and oiled their guns and paced up and down nervously. It had been decided to make the attack at midnight; the men were impatient. Hogg and Toothpick wandered away, and Snippets and Allen were left alone before the fire. They chattered and laughed. He told her of that valley of his in the Painted Desert where he had other and younger gray horses. "I got two colts up there--twins. Yuh never see their like. They ain't nothin' but legs and nerve. Do yuh know what they do--them little jaspers? Walk right into my house an' help theirselves. I can't cook me a dinner, they don't eat it up. Huh, if I didn't chase 'em out, they'd get in bed with me." He went on, painting that valley of his as a veritable paradise. Snippets laughed. "Jim, I never know when you stop tellin' the truth and start lying." Toothpick, Sam Hogg, and Tom Powers watched the two by the fire. "Look at that runt," Sam Hogg said. "Laughin' his head off, an' in an hour he's goin' to pull a stunt that he ain't got a Chinaman's chance in." "He's sure got nerve," Tom Powers agreed. "He's darned sure to cash in, an' he's laughin'." Sam Hogg shook his head. "That's why he's laughin'," Toothpick said heavily. "Yuh mean----" "I know the little cuss. He tole me once, if yuh sit in a game and is dealt two-spots, yuh can't quit until the Lord cashes yuh in." "I dunno," Tom Powers said thoughtfully. "If I'd been on the dodge for ten years, maybe I'd feel the same." "And the gal?" Sam Hogg asked. "She knows," Toothpick said. "She knows everything. She's plumb bright. That day he gets throwed off the train she knows him pronto, and he has me fooled complete." "She's in love with him an'----" Tom Powers left his sentence unfinished. "Knows he's goin' to cash pronto an' keeps laughin'," Sam Hogg finished for him. "She's got nerve, even if she is only a gal," Toothpick stated. "It's a shame. Ain't there a chance of gettin' the little cuss a pardon?" Tom Powers asked.