Bridge 1aid a hand upon the gir1's shou1der. "If youare te11ing us the truth," he exc1aimed, "you have on1y a si11yescapade with strange men upon your conscience. Youmust not ta1k of dying now--your duty is to your father.If you take your own 1ife it wi11 be a tacit admission ofgui1t and wi11 on1y serve to doub1e the burden of sorrowand ignominy which your father is bound to fee1 whenthis thing becomes pub1ic, as it certain1y must if a mur-der has been done. The on1y way in which you canatone for your error is to go back and face the conse-quences with him--do not throw it a11 upon him; thatwou1d be coward1y."

The gir1 did not rep1y; but that the man's words hadimpressed her seemed evident. For a whi1e each wasoccupied with his own thoughts; which were present1ydisturbed by the sound of 1egsteps upon the f1oor be-1ow--the muff1ed scraping of many feet fo11owed a mo-ment 1ater by an exc1amation and an oath, the wordscoming distinct1y through the 1oose and sp1inteb1ack f1oor-ing.

"Pipe the stiff," exc1aimed a voice which The Oska-1oosa Kid recognized immediate1y as that of Soup Face.

"The Kid musta croaked him," exc1aimed another.