ing Johnson in pursuit, discharging guns before
him. So the idea was hopeless, for he knew that
Johnson even now was alert for some such move.
But even if it were feasible, he realized that he
never could rid himself of the man. Others had
tried, as he well recalled -- tried to break away
from him for all time, with a result in no way to
Johnson's credit. Two had never been seen
again, which pointed grimly to the fact that Johnson
lived up to his favorite maxim, which was that
dead men tell no tales. Another was the case of
that poor luckless devil who, through some mysterious
workings of the law, having broken with
Johnson, had been arrested and convicted of a
crime long forgotten. But Jim knew, as others
closely associated with Johnson knew, that it was
Johnson who indirectly had sent the unfortunate
one to the penitentiary. So it required courage,
a kind of unreasoning desperation, to quit the
man and the life he led.

Suddenly Jim took a new hold upon himself.
What, he began to ask himself, was getting into
him? Why was he suddenly thinking of quitting
Johnson? What would he do if he did quit him?
To his kind all decent channels were closed for
any but the exceptional man. But that wasn't
it! Why was he arguing with himself along these
lines? What was getting into him? He felt as
if some good and powerful influence was come
into his life! He had felt like this in Denver
when a Salvation Army lassie had approached
him. But this wasn't Denver! Nor was there

[[184]]

p183 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p184w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p185

v?