tacitly acknowledged cowardice; he merely knew that

he would not have had the youth otherwise if he could

not have changed him. Ordinarily he accepted male

cowardice with the resignation of surfeited disgust; but

in the case of The Oskaloosa Kid he realized a certain

artless charm which but tended to strengthen his lik-

ing for the youth, so brazen and unaffected was the

boy's admission of his terror of both the real and the

unreal menaces of this night of horror.

That the girl also was well bred was quite evident

to Bridge, while both the girl and the youth realized the

refinement of the strange companion and protector

which Fate had ordered for them, while they also saw

in one another social counterparts of themselves. Thus,

as the night dragged its slow course, the three came to

trust each other more entirely and to speculate upon the

strange train of circumstances which had brought them

thus remarkably together--the thief, the murderer's ac-

complice, and the vagabond.

It was during a period of thoughtful silence when the

night was darkest just before the dawn and the rain

had settled to a dismal drizzle unrelieved by lightning

or by thunder that the five occupants of the room were

suddenly startled by a strange pattering sound from

the floor below. It was as the questioning fall of a child's

feet upon the uncarpeted boards in the room beneath

them. Frozen to silent rigidity, the five sat straining ev-

ery faculty to catch the minutest sound from the black

void where the dead man lay, and as they listened there

came up to them, mingled with the inexplicable foot-

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