"If the 'orses ain't 'ere he won't 'ave any temptation to try. 'E'd never undertake the desert alone and afoot." As they started, Haney called out, as good-naturedly as if they were the best of friends: "Good morning, Mr. Wellesly! I 'ope we'll find you more reasonable to-night." Jim took out his revolver and turned in his saddle toward the captive. Haney grabbed his arm. "Don't you worry," said Jim. "I ain't a-goin' to kill him, like I ought to do. I'm just a-goin' to put my mark on him." Wellesly heard the clicking of the trigger and the thought sped through his mind that this was his last moment on earth. He saw the flash and heard the report, and then it seemed many long minutes until the whizzing of the bullet filled his ear and he heard it thump into the bark of the tree beside his head. There was a stinging in the rim of his left ear, where it had nicked out a little rounded segment. "There!" said Jim, with an ugly laugh, as he put away his gun, "he's my maverick now, and if anybody else claims him there'll be war." CHAPTER XIII The next morning after his arrest Nick Ellhorn was released on bail. He came out thoroughly sobered, and when he learned what had been the result of his drunken trick his vocabulary of abusive epithets ran dry in his effort to characterize his conduct. "How did you happen to get drunk, Nick?" Judge Harlin asked. "I thought you had quit. What did you do it for?" "Sure, and what did I do it for?" said Nick, and the strong Irish accent in his speech told how deeply he felt his misdeed. For he was always most Irish when most moved. "I reckon," he went on, and the rolling intonation fell from his tongue like a faint breath from the green isle itself, "I reckon I did it just to show my friends what a measly, coyote, white-livered, tackey, ornery, spavined, colicky, mangy, blitherin' sort of a beast I am. Sure, now, Judge, I just wanted everybody to know what a gee-whillikined damn fool I can be if I try. And they know, now. Oh, yes, they know. There's nothin' more I can tell. Hold on, Judge! Sure, and I'm thinkin' it all came along of the way I mixed my drinks yesterday when I first struck the Palmleaf. I had beer, and whisky, and some mint juleps, yes, and maybe a cocktail, and I think there was some more beer--yes, there was more beer, and I think likely that I had some brandy up there in that sick man's room. For I seem to remember that I took a drink of brandy because it was goin' to kill him if he drank it, and so I took it in his place. Yes, I must have had some brandy, sure, because nothin' but brandy will set me up that way. Now, just look at that, Judge! Ain't that a fine lay-out for a man to swallow that knows better? If I'd never been inside a saloon before there'd be some excuse. But me a-mixin' my drinks like that! It's plumb ridiculous!"