He had no time to think. Before he could act Vigon was upon him also,

frenzy in his eyes, a knife clutched in his hand. Reason had fled, and

he only saw in O'Ryan the frustrator of his revenge. He had watched the

drip, drip from his victim's wrists with a dreadful joy.

They were man and man, but O'Ryan found in this grisly contest a vaster

trial of strength than in the fight upon the stage a few hours ago. The

first lunge that Vigon made struck him on the tip of the shoulder, and

drew blood; but he caught the hand holding the knife in an iron grasp,

while the half-breed, with superhuman strength, tried in vain for the

long brown throat of the man for whom he had struck oil. As they

struggled and twisted, the eyes of the victim in the chair watched them

with agonised emotions. For him it was life or death. He could not cry

out—his mouth was gagged; but to O'Ryan his groans were like a distant

echo of his own hoarse gasps as he fought his desperate fight. Terry was

as one in an awful dream battling with vague impersonal powers which

slowly strangled his life, yet held him back in torture from the final

surrender.

For minutes they struggled. At last O'Ryan's strength came to the point

of breaking, for Vigon was a powerful man, and to this was added a

madman's energy. He felt that the end was coming. But all at once,

through the groans of the victim in the chair, Terry became conscious of

noises outside—such noises as he had heard before he entered the house,

only nearer and louder. At the same time he heard a horse's hoofs, then

a knock at the door, and a voice calling: "Jopp! Jopp!"

He made a last desperate struggle, and shouted hoarsely.

An instant later there were footsteps in the room, followed by a cry of

fright and amazement.

It was Gow Johnson. He had come to warn Constantine Jopp that a crowd

were come to tar and feather him, and to get him away on his own horse.

Now he sprang to the front door, called to the approaching crowd for

help, then ran back to help O'Ryan. A moment later a dozen men had Vigon

secure, and had released Constantine Jopp, now almost dead from loss of

blood.

As they took the gag from his mouth and tied their handkerchiefs round

his bleeding wrists, Jopp sobbed aloud. His eyes were fixed on Terry

O'Ryan. Terry met the look, and grasped the limp hand lying on the

chair-arm.

"I'm sorry, O'Ryan, I'm sorry for all I've done to you," Jopp sobbed.

"I was a sneak, but I want to own it. I want to be square now. You can

tar and feather me, if you like. I deserve it." He looked at the

others. "I deserve it," he repeated.

"That's what the boys had thought would be appropriate," said Gow Johnson

with a dry chuckle, and the crowd looked at each other and winked. The

wink was kindly, however. "To own up and take your gruel" was the

easiest way to touch the men of the prairie.

A half-hour later the roisterers, who had meant to carry Constantine Jopp

on a rail, carried Terry O'Ryan on their shoulders through the town,

against his will. As they passed the house where Miss Mackinder lived

some one shouted:

"Are you watching the rise of Orion?"

Many a time thereafter Terry O'Ryan and Molly Mackinder looked at the

galaxy in the evening sky with laughter and with pride. It had played

its part with Fate against Constantine Jopp and the little widow at

Jansen. It had never shone so brightly as on the night when Vigon struck

oil on O'Ryan's ranch. But Vigon had no memory of that. Such is the

irony of life.

ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:

Babbling covers a lot of secrets

Beneath it all there was a little touch of ridicule

What'll be the differ a hundred years from now

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