“Not for pure invention.  Hardly.”

“That’s what I said at first.  But I don’t know.  In some ways it would be like him.  He wouldn’t mind coming back and giving us the laugh, if he thought he could get away with it.  He didn’t know fear.  Only time he ever showed funk was when he beat it after the shooting, and then he was full of hootch, and on the edge of D.T.’s.”

“A man doesn’t play jokes with the hangman’s rope,” Bassett commented, dryly.  He looked at his watch and rose.  “It’s a good story, but I wouldn’t wear out any trouser-seats sitting here watching for him.  If he’s living he’s taken pretty good care for ten years not to put his head in the noose; and I’d remember this, too.  Wherever he is, if he is anywhere, he’s probably so changed his appearance that Telescope Lizzie wouldn’t know him.  Or you either.”

“Probably,” the sheriff said, comfortably.  “Still I’m not taking any chances.  I’m up for reelection this fall, and that Donaldson woman’s story nearly queered me.  I’ve got a fellow at the railroad station, just for luck.”

Bassett went up the stairs and along the corridor, deep in dejected thought.  The trap of his own making was closing, and his active mind was busy with schemes for getting Dick away before it shut entirely.

It might be better, in one way, to keep Livingstone there in his room until the alarm blew over.  On the other hand, Livingstone himself had to be dealt with, and that he would remain quiescent under the circumstances was unlikely.  The motor to the main line seemed to be the best thing.  True, he would have first to get Livingstone to agree to go.  That done, and he did not underestimate its difficulty, there was the question of getting him out of the hotel, now that the alarm had been given.

When he found Dick still sleeping he made a careful survey of the second floor.  There was a second staircase, but investigation showed that it led into the kitchens.  He decided finally on a fire-escape from a rear hall window, which led into a courtyard littered with the untidy rubbish of an overcrowded and undermanned hotel, and where now two or three saddled horses waited while their riders ate within.

When he had made certain that he was not observed he unlocked and opened the window, and removed the wire screen.  There was a red fire-exit lamp in the ceiling nearby, but he could not reach it, nor could he find any wall switch.  Nevertheless he knew by that time that through the window lay Dick’s only chance of escape.  He cleared the grating of a broken box and an empty flower pot, stood the screen outside the wall, and then, still unobserved, made his way back to his own bedroom and packed his belongings.

Dick was still sleeping, stretched on his bed, when he returned to three-twenty.  And here Bassett’s careful plans began to go awry, for Dick’s body was twitching, and his face was pale and covered with a cold sweat.  From wondering how they could get away, Bassett began to wonder whether they would get away at all.  The sleep was more like a stupor than sleep.  He sat down by the bed, closer to sheer fright than he had ever been before, and wretched with the miserable knowledge of his own responsibility.