Genre - Western. You are on the page - 27

at first, that the two men were shooting at another man, concealed behind the rock; but the fact that there were only two horses indicated that he had been in error. No man would be foolhardy enough to attempt to cross the desert on foot, and unless a man were a friend he would not be carried upon another man's horse. Therefore, it seemed to be evident that the target at which the men were shooting was not another man.And now, convinced that the men had cornered an animal of some kind, and that

h," groaned a man on the floor, slowly sitting up. "Whoever swapped him that wedge for his gun did us a good turn, all right."A companion tentatively readjusted his lip. "I don't envy Wilkins his job breaking in that man when he gets awake." "Don't waste no time, mates," came the order. "Up with 'em an' aboard. We've done our share; let the mate do his, an' be hanged. Hullo, Portsmouth; coming around, eh?" he asked the man who had first felt the

e were striving to read a human mind."The curtain ain't up," said the sheriff, "but I reckon that the stage is set and that they's gunna be an entrance pretty pronto." "Here's somebody coming," said Georgia, gesturing toward the farther end of the street. "Yeah," said the sheriff, "but he's comin' too slow to mean anything." "Slow and earnest wins the race," said another. They were growing impatient; like a crowd at a bullfight, when

I've about concluded that he ain't comin'. An' so I come over to Dry Bottom to find a man.""You've found one," smiled the stranger. Stafford drew out a handful of double eagles and pressed them into the other's hand. "I'm goin' over to the Two Diamond now," he said. "You'd better wait a day or two, so's no one will get wise. Come right to me, like you was wantin' a job." He started toward the hitching rail for his pony, hesitated and then walked back. "I

k of his uncle recalled the fact that he must now become a fugitive. An unreasonable anger took hold of him."The d--d fool!" he exclaimed, hotly. "Meeting Bain wasn't much, Uncle Jim. He dusted my boots, that's all. And for that I've got to go on the dodge." "Son, you killed him--then?" asked the uncle, huskily. "Yes. I stood over him--watched him die. I did as I would have been done by." "I knew it. Long ago I saw it comin'. But now we can't stop to

tracks. Now is the time when the wild mustangs and the buffaloes go southward, and the Indians follow in the chase. The Kiowas are all right, for we arranged with them for the road, but the Apaches and Comanches know nothing of it, and we don't dare let them see us. We have finished our part, and are ready to leave this region; hurry up with yours, and do likewise. Remember there's danger, and good-by."Sam looked gravely after his retreating form, and pointed to a footprint near the spring