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"No, I'm not crazy; but I want to speak with him alone for just a moment, Eddie--

please."

Eddie hesitated. He knew that Grayson would be angry if he let the boss's

daughter into that back room alone with an outlaw and a robber, and the boss

himself would probably be inclined to have Eddie drawn and quartered; but it

was hard to refuse Miss Barbara anything.

Where is he?" she asked.

Eddie jerked a thumb in the direction of the door. The key still was in the lock.

Go to the window and look at the moon, Eddie," suggested the girl. "It's perfectly

gorgeous tonight. Please, Eddie," as he still hesitated.

Eddie shook his head and moved slowly toward the window.

"There can't nobody refuse you nothin', miss," he said; "'specially when you got

your heart set on it."

That's a dear, Eddie," purred the girl, and moved swiftly across the room to the

locked door.

As she turned the key in the lock she felt a little shiver of nervous excitement run

through her. "What sort of man would he be--this hardened outlaw and robber--

this renegade American who had cast his lot with the avowed enemies of his own

people?" she wondered.

Only her desire to learn of Bridge's fate urged her to attempt so distasteful an

interview; but she dared not ask another to put the question for her, since should

her complicity in Bridge's escape--provided of course that he had escaped--

become known to Villa the fate of the Americans at El Orobo would be definitely

sealed.

She turned the knob and pushed the door open, slowly. A man was sitting in a

chair in the center of the room. His back was toward her. He was a big man. His

broad shoulders loomed immense above the back of the rude chair. A shock of

black hair, rumpled and tousled, covered a well-shaped head.

At the sound of the door creaking upon its hinges he turned his face in her

direction, and as his eyes met hers all four went wide in surprise and incredulity.

"Billy!" she cried.

"Barbara!--you?" and Billy rose to his feet, his bound hands struggling to be free.

260

The Mucker