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A WESTERN REDEMPTION
-[■■',
TOM AND STEVE
the truth. The next moment they were dashing madly down the road, a beg of gold at the pommel of each saddle.
"Tom," said Steve the following morning, "you ain't got enough nerve to travel with the likes of me, and I 'm going to quit you. Let's whack up the loot and call it off."
"All right, Steve," replied the latter, without resentment. "I was thinking that I'd run straight, after this. I want to look up my father and mother."
' ' Softy ! ' ' sneered his companion.
"Come," said Tom shortly. "We dont want to quarrel."
They dumped the contents of the two bags on the bleak, deserted prairie, and divided the money and jewelry. There was some dispute over the value of the latter, but Tom finally accepted a small gold locket to offset a watch of far greater value. He seemed apathetic, uninterested, sick of the whole affair. Steve swung the bag and a small bundle of clothing across his saddle, and mounted without offering his hand. He was burning with eagerness to be off.
"Good-by," he called over his shoulder.
"Good-by, Steve." growled Tom, sullenlv. •
He re-entered the cabin listlessly. and dumped his share of the spoils on the plain board table. The locket fell under his hand, and he fumbled at the catch. Next moment he staggered backward, his eyes staring wildly. The locket had opened at liis touch, and revealed a daguerreotype of his mother.
' ' God ! ' ' gasped Tom. ' ' That noise ? Was that — was that one of them ? ' '
In a flash he realized how Steve had deceived him.
Leaving the valuables just as they lay, Tom rushed out and flung a saddle upon his own pony. He cinched the girth with care, as he knew that he had a long, hard ride before him. Steve's horse was as good as his own, but no man could ride against him that day. Ten seconds later he was galloping wildly across the prairie.
The rising moon found Tom's horse still stumbling wearily forward. He had covered a distance of fifty miles. Surely no man could have held that pace much further. A fire smouldering on the distant hillside caught his eye. The horse responded to his sudden flash of hope.
There was none to witness the struggle on that dark hillside.
"Tell me," gasped Tom, as he throttled his adversary fiercely, "did you injure them?"
His knees were upon Steve's laboring chest, and he seized and flung aside his gun.
"If you did," growled Tom, "Til see that you hang for it ! You dog ! You knew all the time, and now you will come and share the punishment ! I see now why you were so anxious to get away. ' '
Compelled by the threat of Tom's leveled revolver, Steve grunted a denial, and mounted his horse. lie rode slowly off in front of his captor. Tom's steady hand held the revolver pointed undeviatingly at his companion's back.
"They've had time to ride clean out of the State if they saved their horses," the sheriff was saying despondently. "They ought to have