The Spider gestured toward a blanket-covered couch against the wall.  “Lay down there.  No, on your face.  Huh!  Wait till I get some water.”

Pete closed his eyes.  Presently he felt the light touch of fingers and then a soothing coolness.  He heard The Spider moving about the room.  The door closed softly.  Pete raised his head.  The room was dark.  He thought of Malvey and he wondered at The Spider’s apparent solicitude.  He was in The Spider’s hands—­for good or ill . . .  Sleep blotted out all sense of being.

Late that afternoon he awoke to realize that there was some one in the room.  He raised on his elbow and turned to see The Spider gazing down at him with a peculiar expression—­as though he were questioning himself and awaiting an answer from some outside source.

Pete stretched and yawned and grinned lazily.  “Hello, pardner!  I was dreamin’ of a friend of mine when I come to and saw”—­Pete hesitated, sat up and yawned again—­“another friend that I wa’n’t dreamin’ about,” he concluded.

“What makes you think I’m your friend?” queried The Spider.

“Oh, hell, I dunno,” said Pete, rubbing the back of his head and grinning boyishly.  “But there’s no law ag’in’ my feelin’ that way, is there?  Doggone it, I’m plumb empty!  Feel like my insides had been takin’ a day off and had come back just pawin’ the air to git to work.”

“Malvey’s in town.”

Pete’s mouth hardened, then relaxed to a grin.

“Well, if he’s as hungry as I am he ain’t worryin’ about me.”

“He’s got your horse.”

“That don’t worry me none.”

“I told Malvey to get your horse from you and set you afoot at Flores’.”

“And he sure made a good job of it, didn’t he?  But I don’t sabe your game in hog-tyin’ me down to Flores’s place.”

“I figured you’d be safer afoot till you kind of cooled down.”

Pete tried to read The Spider’s face, but it was as impersonal as the desert itself.  “Mebby you figured to hold me there till you was good and ready to use me,” said Pete.

The Spider nodded.

“Well, there’s nothin’ doin’.  I ain’t no killer or no hoss-thief lookin’ for a job.  I got in bad up north—­but I ain’t lookin’ for no more trouble.  If Malvey and me lock horns—­that’s my business.  But you got me wrong if you reckon I’m goin’ to throw in with your outfit.  I kin pay for what I eat a couple of times, anyhow.  But I ain’t hirin’ out to no man.”

“Go back in the patio and Juan will get you some chuck,” said The Spider abruptly.

“Which I’m payin’ for,” said Pete.

“Which you’re paying for,” said The Spider.