.

RAFE AND JEFF MISCALCULATE.
The two men whom the craven gambler had sighted were coming slowly onward, their movements suggesting a good deal of care and watchfulness.
Nor did they come in a wholly straight line.

That they did not suspect the nearness of Jim Duff and his mad companion was plain at a glance.
"Burrow in the sand!" whispered the gambler in Ashby's ear.

"Quiet! Be ready, but don't do anything unless I give you the word." "When you do give me the word," trembled the hotel man, "I'll kill 'em both." "Not unless we have to do so--remember!" ordered the gambler.

"We want, if possible, to take 'em alive." Let us now go back to the two men whom Duff and Ashby were watching so closely.
They were Rafe Bodson and Jeff Moore.
Both had come out of the recent fighting unharmed.