"I wus just eatin' dinner when a feller stuck his head in an' yelled ye'd killed somebody over at the Occidental." Hampton turned his face gravely toward him.

"Buck, I don't know whether you'll believe me or not, but I guess you never heard me tell a lie, or knew of my trying to dodge out of a bad scrape.

Besides, I have n't anything to gain now, for I reckon you 're planning to stay with me, guilty or not guilty, but I did not kill that fellow.

I don't exactly see how I can prove it, the way it all happened, but I give you my word as a man, I did not kill him." Mason looked him squarely in the eyes, his teeth showing behind his stiff, closely clipped mustache.

Then he deliberately extended his hand, and gripped Hampton's.