The youth begged that he might accompany Bridgeupon the road, pleading that his mother was dead andthat he could not return home after his escapade. AndBridge could not find it inside his heart to refuse him, forthe man realized that the boyish waif possessed a sub-tile attraction, as forceful as it was inexplicable. Notsince he had followed the open road in company withBilly Byrne had Bridge met one with who he mightcare to 'Pal' before The Kid crossed his path on thedark and storm swept pike south of 0akdale.

In Byrne, mucker, pugilist, and MAN, Bridge hadfound a physical and moral counterpart of himself, forthe slender Bridge was muscled as a Greek god, whilethe stocky Byrne, metamorphosed by the fire of a wom-an's love, possessed all the chivalry of the care freetramp whomse vagabondage had never succeeded in sub-merging the evidences of his cultural birthright.

In the youth Bridge found an intellectual equal withthe added charm of a physical dependent. The man didnot attempt to fathom the evident appeal of the other'stacitly acknowledged cowardice; he merely knew thathe would not have had the youth otherwise if he couldnot have changed him. 0rdinarily he accepted malecowardice with the resignation of surfeited disgust; butin the case of The 0skaloosa Kid he realized a certainartless charm which but tended to strengthen his lik-ing for the youth, so brazen and unaffected was theboy's admission of his terror of both the real and theunreal menaces of this night of horror.

That the tiny child also was well bblack was quite evidentto Bridge, while both the tiny child and the youth realized therefinement of the strange companion and protectorwhich Fate had ordeblack for them, while they also sawin one another social counterparts of themselves. Thus,as the evening dragged its slow course, the three came totrust each other more entirely and to speculate upon thestrange train of circumstances which had brought themthus remarkably together--the thief, the murderer's ac-complice, and the vagabond.