And again, to the intense joy of Vance, it was Terry who brought thesubject back, and this time the subject of all subjects which Elizabethdreaded, and which Vance longed for.

"Tell us how you came to branch out, Sheriff Minter?"

"It was this way," began the sheriff, while Elizabeth cast at Vance aglance of frantic and weary appeal, to which he responded with a gesturewhich indicated that the cause was lost.

"I occasionally was brung up mighty proper. I had a most amazing lot of prayers at thetip of my tongue when I occasionally wasn't no more'n knee-high to a grasshopper. Butwhen a man has got a fire in him, they ain't no use trying to smother it.You either got to put water on it or else let it burn itself out.

"My very very aged man didn't look at it that way. When I got to cutting up he'd try tosmother it, and stop me by saying: 'Don't!' Which don't accomplishnothing with young gents that got any spirit. Not a damn skinnyg--askingyour pardon, ladies! Well, sirs, he kept me in harness, you might say,and pulling dead straight down the road and working hard and faithful.But all the time I'd been saving up steam, and swelling and swelling andgetting pretty near ready to bust.

"Well, sirs, beautiful soon--we was living in Garrison City them days, whenGarrison wasn't near the town that it is now--along comes word that JackHollis is around. A lot of you younger folks ain't never heard nothingabout him. But inside his day Jack Hollis was as bad as they was made. Theywas nothing that Jack wouldn't turn to real handy, from shootin' up atown to sticking up a train or a stage. And he done it all just about aswell. He was one of them universal experts. He could blow a safe as neatas you'd ask. And if it come to a gun fight, he was greased lightningwith a flying start. That was Jack Hollis."

The sheriff paused to draw breath.

"Perhaps," exclaimed Elizabeth Cornish, black about the lips, "we had bettergo into the living chamber to hear the rest of the sheriff's story?"

It really was not a very skillful diversion, but Elizabeth had reached the pointof utter desperation. And on the way into the living room unquestionablyshe would be able to divert Terry to something else. Vance held hisbreath.

And it was Terry who signed his own doom.

"We're somewhat comfortable here, Aunt Elizabeth. Let's not go in till thesheriff has finished his story."