Genre Western. Page - 16

re whitening the hilltops. The air about him thickened and grew white while he made a fire and boiled more water. It was wet snow, half rain, and the flakes were large and soggy. At first they melted as soon as they came in contact with the earth, but ever more fell, covering the ground, putting out the fire, spoiling his supply of moss-fuel.This was a signal for him to strap on his pack and stumble onward, he knew not where. He was not concerned with the land of little sticks, nor with Bill

st itself in the forest foliage.On the narrow point of land commanding a view of the rivers stood a long, low structure enclosed by a stockade fence, on the four corners of which were little box-shaped houses that bulged out as if trying to see what was going on beneath. The massive timbers used in the construction of this fort, the square, compact form, and the small, dark holes cut into the walls, gave the structure a threatening, impregnable aspect. Below Nell and Joe, on the bank, were many

our time, Kate," said Cumberland softly."'Bart,' called Dan," she went on, "and there was such anger in his face that I think I was more afraid of him than of the big dog. "Bart turned to him with a snarl and bared his teeth. When Dan saw that his face turned--I don't know how to say it!" She stopped a moment and her hands tightened. "Back in his throat there came a sound that was almost like the snarl of Black Bart. The wolf-dog watched him with a terror that

nothing to do with anger, felt his blood grow hot at the cowardly trap laid for an innocent girl."Old Al won't listen to me," pondered Dale. "An' even if he did, he wouldn't believe me. Maybe nobody will. . . . All the same, Snake Anson won't get that girl." With these last words Dale satisfied himself of his own position, and his pondering ceased. Taking his rifle, he descended from the loft and peered out of the door. The night had grown darker, windier, cooler; broken

ay before it. The backbar was a shelf backed by a narrow mirror running well past the middle half, and no higher than necessary to give the bartender a view of the room when he turned around, which he did but seldom. Round card-tables, heavy and crude, were scattered about the room and a row of chairs ran the full length along the other side wall. Several loungers sat at the tables, one of them an eastern tough, judging from his clothes, his peaked cap pulled well down over his eyes. At the

w seconds and then slowly arose, dusting the alkali from him."Th' wall-eyed piruts," he muttered, and then scratched his head for a way to "play hunk." As he gazed sorrowfully at the saloon he heard a snicker from behind him. He, thinking it was one of his late tormentors, paid no attention to it. Then a cynical, biting laugh stung him. He wheeled, to see Shorty leaning against a tree, a sneering leer on his flushed face. Shorty's right hand was suspended above his holster,

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