It brought him to himself, it filled him with a horrified realization of the foulness of the deed which he was contemplating.
"No—no!" said he. "Why, I'd be the coward that he called me!"
He hurried to the fuse and, with trembling eagerness, stamped out the spark which, now, was creeping close indeed to that point where it would have blossomed into the terrifying flower of death.
"I'll fight him ag'in," he said; and then, addressing the now extinguished fuse, the harmless cartridge of explosive: "You lie thar and prove ter him I ain't no coward!"
He hurried down the trail.
Holton, vastly disappointed, crept out from his hiding place. "The fool!" he muttered. "Oh, the fool! That thar little spark would a' put me even an' made me safe fer life! An' it war lighted—it war lighted!"
His regret was keen. He raged there like a madman robbed of his intended prey. Then, suddenly:
"But—who'll believe him when he says he put it out? I'll—do it!"
He hastily took out a match, struck it, relighted the dead fuse.
"It'll be his work, not mine!" he thought, exultantly, as he paused to see that the fuse would surely burn.