"Three this morning," he said unsteadily. "Anyway, it's better than hanging."
There was a long pause, and then:
"Say," he said, "I'm sorry I said I was glad that guy was going."
Malcolm understood.
The day brought Irene at the same hour as on the previous afternoon. She looked around for the priest, and apparently understood, for she made no reference to the missing man.
"If you can get away from here," she said, "go to Preopojenski. That is a village a few versts from here. I tell you this, but"
She did not complete her sentence, but Malcolm could guess from the hopeless despair in her voice.
"Excuse me, miss," interrupted Cherry Bim. "Ain't there any way of getting a gun for a man? Any old kind of gun," he said urgently; "Colt, Smith-Wesson, Browning, Mauser—I can handle 'em all—but Colt preferred."
She shook her head sadly.
"It is impossible," she said. "I am searched every time I come in through the lodge."
"In a pie," urged Cherry. "I've read in stories how you can get these things in a pie. Couldn't you make"
"It's quite impossible," she said. "Even bread
