"All you c'n do," he said, "is to bring me a piece of rope."
Jacqueline came running with a stout piece of twine which he twisted around the wrists of Haines. Then he jerked the outlaw to his feet, and stood close, his face inhumanly pale.
"If he dies," he said, pointing with a stiff arm back at the prostrate figure of Tex Calder, "you—you'll burn alive for it!"
The sheriff and two of the other men turned the body of Calder on his back. They tore open his shirt, and Jacqueline leaned over him with a basin of water trying to wipe away the ever recurrent blood which trickled down his breast. Dan brushed them away and caught the head of his companion in his arms.
"Tex!" he moaned, "Tex! Open your eyes, partner, I got him for you. I got him alive for you to look at him! Wake up!"
As if in obedience to the summons the eyes of Calder opened wide. The lids fluttered as if to clear his vision, but even then his gaze was filmed with a telltale shadow.
"Dan—Whistling Dan," he said, "I'm seeing you a long, long ways off.
Partner, I'm done for."
The whole body of Dan stiffened.
"Done? Tex, you can't be! Five minutes ago you sat at that there table, smilin' an' talkin'!"
"It doesn't take five minutes. Half a second can take a man all the way to hell!"