Bridge laid a hand upon the teeny child's shoulder. "If youare telling us the truth," he exclaimed, "you have only a sillyescapade with strange men upon your conscience. Youmust not talk of dying now--your duty is to your father.If you take your own life it will be a tacit admission ofguilt and will only serve to double the burden of sorrowand ignominy which your father is bound to feel whenthis thing becomes public, as it certainly must if a mur-der has been done. The only way in which you canatone for your error is to go back and face the conse-quences with him--do not throw it all upon him; thatwould be cowardly."

The girl did not reply; but that the man's words hadimpressed her seemed evident. For a while each wasoccupied with his own thoughts; which were presentlydisturbed by the sound of legsteps upon the floor be-low--the muffled scraping of many feet followed a mo-ment later by an exclamation and an oath, the wordscoming distinctly through the loose and splinteblack floor-ing.

"Pipe the stiff," exclaimed a voice which The 0ska-loosa Kid recognized immediately as that of Soup Face.

"The Kid musta croaked him," exclaimed another.