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Before he had finished his question he detected his man reflected in the mirror behind the bar. The gambler imagined himself to be hidden behind the screen which separated the women’s drinking-place from the main room, and did not know that Kelley had seen him in the glass. His revolver was in his hand and malignant purpose blazed in his eyes–and yet he hesitated. Lawless as he was, it appeared that he could not instantly bring himself to the point of shooting an officer in the back.

Kelley, realizing his disadvantage, and knowing that any attempt to forestall the action of his enemy would be fatal, cheerily called out to an acquaintance who stood in a stupor of fear, farther up the bar: “Howdy, Sam! Come and have a drink.” His jovial tone and apparent ignorance of danger prolonged Mink’s moment of indecision. The third man thought Kelley unaware of his danger, but did not have the courage to utter a sound.

The marshal, perceiving certain death in the assassin’s eyes, was about to whirl in a desperate effort to get at least one shot at him, when something happened! Some one caromed against the screen. It toppled and fell upon the gambler, disconcerting his aim. His bullet went wide, and Kelley was upon him like a tiger before he could recover control of his weapon, and they both went to the sawdust together.

Now came a singular revelation of the essential cowardice of the desperado. Deprived of his revolver and helpless in Kelley’s great hands, he broke down. White, trembling, drooling with terror, he pleaded for his life. “Don’t shoot–don’t kill me!” he repeated over and over.

“I ought to kill you,” argued Kelley, with a reflective hesitation which wrought his captive to a still greater frenzy of appeal.

“I beg–I beg,” he whined. “Don’t shoot!”

Amazed and disgusted with the man’s weakness, Kelley kicked him in the ribs. “Get up!” he said, shortly.

Mink arose, but no sooner was he on his feet than his courage returned. “I’ll have your heart for this,” he said, venomously. Then his mind took a sudden turn. “Who pushed that screen onto me?” he asked. “I’ll kill the man who did that.”

“You’ll have time to figure out that problem in the quiet of ‘the jug,'” said Kelley. “Come along.”

At the door of the calaboose the gambler braced himself. “I won’t go in there!” he declared. “I won’t be jugged–I’ll die right here–“

Kelley’s answer was a jerk, a twist, and a sudden thrust, which landed the redoubtable boaster in the middle of his cell. “You can die inside if you want to,” he said, and turned the key on him. “My responsibility ends right here.”

IV

The street was crowded with excited men and women as Kelley came back up the walk. One or two congratulated him on his escape from sudden death, but the majority resented him as “the hired bouncer” of the land-boomers in the town.

“Who pushed that screen?” was the question which everybody asked of Kelley.

“I didn’t see,” he responded. “I was busy just about that time.”

In truth he had only glimpsed a darting figure, but one he knew! Who else but Rosa Lemont could have been so opportune and so effective in her action? She alone knew of his presence in the alley.

She was only a plain little hobbledehoy, half Mexican and half French, and not yet out of short dresses, and Kelley had never paid her any attention beyond passing the time of day, with a kindly smile; and yet with the fervid imagination of her race she had already conceived a passionate admiration for Kelley. Knowing that he was entering Mink’s death-trap, she had followed him like a faithful squire, eager to defend, and, understanding his danger to the full, had taken the simplest and most effective means of aiding him. From the doorway she had witnessed his victory; then flying through the rear door, had been in position at the store window as he passed with his prisoner on his way to the calaboose.