up and
shoot at them too."

"All right, me shoot," he said; "take plenty scalp."

I went back to the drug store feeling better. There were now two
chances for defeating the outlaws if they came; to beat them off, or
blow them up with the powder. I lay down on the floor back of the
counter with my head on the door-mat. The windows were boarded up,
and I felt sure that even if they came they would never find me here.

I woke up three hours later, as I had that first night six months
before in the Headquarters House, with Pike hold of my ear, and a man
pushing a smoky lantern in my face.




CHAPTER XX

What the Outlaws do on their second Visit: with the awful Hours I pass
through, and how I find myself at the End.


The first thing I heard was a loud laugh, and then:

"How are you, Jud?" said Pike. "Back again, you see. Hope yer feeling
all right."

I saw I might as well make the best of it, though you may be sure I
was half scared to death.

"Yes, I'm feeling pretty well," I said. "I was able to be about the
last time you were here, maybe you remember."

Pike scowled at me. "Yes, that's so, you was," he said. "You stood us
off in pretty good shape that time--you and the snow. We were fools
not to find out that you were all alone. But we app'inted an
investigating committee _this_ time, and we're onto your game. Just
excuse me, but I'll have to ask you to wear a little of Taggart's
jewelry while we tend to some important business."

He pulled out a pair of handcuffs and slipped one of them around my
wrist and shut it up so tight that it pressed into the flesh. Then he
led me in front of the counter, slipped the other cuff through a brace
under the front edge of the counter, and then clasped it around my
other wrist, leaving the short chain which connected the cuffs behind
the brace, so that I was a prisoner. He pushed up a chair and said:

"Set down and make yourself comfortable, Jud. I'll see if I can't find
a handful of buttons for you, and you can put 'em on the counter and
play checkers with your nose."

The men laughed at this, and Pike went on:

"We met your pardner out here, the dark-complected feller. He was
a-riding off our pinto that we left here by mistake last winter, with
our saddle and things, and a-leading your two broncs, so we just
stopped him and gathered 'em in, and I reckon they're _all_ our'n now,
_most_ of 'em, _anyhow_. And in consideration of our only shooting him
around the edges careful like, he give us some valuable information,
such as just where you was a-sleeping, Jud, and where we'd find the
blacksmith tools, and so forth. That's the way to get along with an
Injun and have everything all easy-going--shoot 'im, _very careful_,
around the edges."

Again they all laughed, and then went out the back door, which, I
noticed, had a small hole cut in it over the bolt big enough to let in
a man's hand. There were five of them, counting Pike. The windows were
boarded up and it was dark in the store, but as the door opened I saw
that it was quite light outside and that it was snowing.

[Illustration: PIKE HANDCUFFING ME IN THE DRUG STORE, MARCH NINETEENTH]

As I sat there in the dark unable to move and with the handcuffs
cutting into my wrists you may believe I was miserable enough. I
expected nothing short of being killed by the gang before they left. I
saw what a fool I had been to trust the scoundrelly Indian even as
much as I had. It was a little satisfaction, however, to know that he
had failed to get off with his stolen property even if it had fallen
into the hands of a worse set of thieves. I soon heard them at work on
the safe in the bank. Of course I thought of my fuse, but it was a
dozen feet away, the other side of the counter, and I could see not a
shadow of hope of getting at it.

I think I sat there as much as two hours, listening to the noise in
the next building, when Pike came in and said:

"You'll be glad to hear, Jud, that we're getting along beautiful on
that safe. We're a-going to blow the stuffing out of it the next thing
_you_ know. Reckon if you ain't particular we'll just borrow a sleigh
we see out here and a set of Sours's harness for a couple of our
horses when we go away, 'cause we think the specie may be a little
heavy. Besides, we're calculating there may be some other stuff around
town worth taking off--Winchesters and such agricultural and
stock-raising implements," and he laughed. He seemed to be in very
good humor.

He went back, and for another long while I heard nothing but steady
drilling on the safe and a little of their talk, though I could not
catch much of that. Sometimes, too, I could hear Kaiser barking. He
was locked in the hotel, and I thought he knew I was in trouble and
wanted to get out and help me.

After what seemed hours Pike came in again.

"We blow 'er open now very shortly," he said. "A reg'ler little Fourth
o' July celebration of our own, hey, Jud?" Then he laughed and went
on: "We need that money and you bet it's going to come handy." He
looked at me, came closer with the lantern, and said:

"Jud, what d'ye say to coming in with us and having your share like a
man? You're a good one, if you _are_ young, and we can find plenty of
work for you, and always you get your share."

"No," I said, "I don't care to."

He looked at me sharply a moment and then went on:

"Just as you please, of course. But me and the boys was talking it
over and we calculated it was the best way to dispose of you, a _pile_
the best for you and _some_ better for us."

I had kept looking straight into his eyes, under his big eyebrows.
"No," I said, "I won't do it."

"Oh, take your choice," he answered, "take your choice. Just as you
think best, of course. Only you know the old saying about how dead men
don't tell any tales. And if you come in with us you get your share,
just the same as if you'd done your part of the work."

I said nothing. He waited a minute, then went out and shut the door. I
sprang up and pulled and wrenched at the brace with all my strength.
The handcuffs cut into my wrists, but I did not feel it. The brace
stayed as firm as ever. I sat down weak and trembling with my last
hope gone. A minute later there was a loud explosion in the bank,
which shook the building I was in. Next came a cheer from the men.
Then voices, and I heard Pike shout:

"It's all afire here--bring a pail of water, Joe!"

The well windlass creaked and I heard a man start in from the back.
Next I heard Pike say, "We'll soon fix that fire," then came an
explosion and a crash, like an earthquake, and the wall came down upon
me, and the counter came over and I was half under it. I heard the
cries of the men, and, wriggling about, I got out from under the
counter and found my hands free from the brace, and the snowflakes
coming in my face through where half the side of the building had been
blown away.




CHAPTER XXI

After the Explosion: some cheerful Talk with the Thieves, and a
strange but welcome Message out of the Storm.


As I struggled to my feet out of the wreck I was so dazed that I had
to lean against the wall to keep from falling. I felt something
running down my face and at first wondered what it was; then I saw it
was blood. One of my arms felt numb and I was afraid it was broken;
and my hands were all torn and bruised. I could not see into the other
building for the smoke and falling snow, but I could hear the groans
and curses of the men. I thought that if any of them were able they
might come to take revenge on me, and that I best go away, especially
as I was helpless with the handcuffs still on my wrists. I managed to
pull open the front door and ran to Taggart's, thinking that I might
get the handcuffs off in some way.

I found the box from which Pike had got them. There were two other
pairs, with keys. I took the keys in my teeth and tried, but neither
would fit mine. Then I went to the tin shop up-stairs. There was a
file on the bench and I managed to get this into the vise and began
rubbing the chain up and down on the edge of it. It was the hardest
work I ever did, but I soon saw that I could get my hands free in time
if I kept on. Once or twice I heard Pike shouting something and I
could still hear Kaiser barking in the hotel.

I don't know how long it took, but at last I got my hands separated,
though of course the clasps were still tightly around my wrists. I
looked out of the window and saw that the sleigh was in front of the
bank with a pair of the outlaws' horses hitched to it. I was afraid
that the safe had been blown open with the first explosion and that
they were getting the money after all. I ran out the back door and
along behind the buildings to the hotel. Kaiser bounded around me, and
Pawsy was again in her old place over the door.

I peeped through the cracks in the boards over one of the front
windows. The whole front of the bank was blown away, but I could just
make out through the snow that the inner door of the safe was still
closed. Two of the men were lying in the bottom of the sleigh,
motionless, whether dead or alive I knew not. Pike was on the floor of
the bank, propped up on one elbow, giving orders to the one they
called Joe, who was helping the fifth man into the sleigh, who seemed
badly wounded and sat in the bottom of the box.

Then Joe went back to help Pike. He took him by the arms and was
dragging him toward the sleigh, when I suddenly made up my mind that I
would keep Pike. I went to the closet and got Sours's double-barreled
shot-gun. I knew there was no weapon that they would fear so much at
close range. I opened the door and walked out into the street with
it.

"Just leave Pike right here," I said. "I'll take care of him. The rest
of you go on."

I guess they thought I was buried under the rubbish in the drug store,
because I have seldom seen men more astonished. I walked up closer.
Even Joe looked half wrecked, and his face was all blackened with
powder.

"Hello, Jud," called Pike. "You ain't a-going to strike a man when
he's down, be you, Jud? I might 'a' been harder on you many a time
than I was, Jud."

"No, I won't hurt you, but you've got to stay, that's all," I said.
"Help him over to the hotel and then go on with the others and don't
come back," I added, looking at Joe.

There was nothing for him but to do as he was told, because I held the
gun on them both, and they had heard the click as I drew back the
hammers. Pike's left leg seemed to be broken and he was all burned and
blackened with the powder. I sent Joe for a mattress, which he put on
the floor of the office and rolled Pike on it. Then he drove off with
the others.

So that is the whole account of the second visit of the outlaws to
Track's End, just as it all happened, Saturday, March 19th.

"Now, Pike," I said, after Joe had gone, "the first thing--out with
that handcuff key!"

He took it from his pocket and gave it to me. I unlocked each of my
bracelets. They left deep red marks around my wrists. Pike asked for a
drink of water and I got it for him. I could see that he was in
pain.

"You've played it on us again, Jud, I'll be hanged if you ain't," he
said to me. "What'd you have under that counter, Jud?"

"A can of blasting-powder," I answered.

"Dangerous place to store it when there's explosions, and kerosene
lamps and hot stoves, and fires, and such truck around. It done us
fellers up, and that's a fact."

"Well, I wasn't trying to make you feel at home," I replied. "How did
you happen to be blowing open other folks's safes?"

"Oh, it's all right, Jud, it's all right," he said. "I ain't finding
no fault. Only I think you'd 'a' done better to join us and get your
share."

Though I still felt pretty dizzy and weak I started out to look about
town. I found that the inside door of the bank safe was still tight
shut, though the outer one was blown off. The building was wrecked and
the drug store was not in much better shape. I could see that the bank
had been afire, but that Joe had put it out with water from the well.