By Right of Purchase

s of the Northwest Police, all of them rather young, two prairie farmers, Leland, Gallwey, and the Sergeant, but the latter had decided that they would be enough, for the purpose. He was aware that

undertaken the business, it was advisable that they should carry it out without exposing themselves unnecessarily to the outlaws' vengeance. There were several band

op and bend. A sluggish creek flowed through its bottom beneath the ice, and a growth of willows and birches that there found shelter from the winds straggled up its sides. Trees fringed the crest of the dip, too, and in places overflowed into the prairie in sca

come. The main body lined the trail in the thickest of the bluff, just below the crest of the ravine, and Leland and one young trooper proceeded to the foot of the declivity. It would be their business to stop anybody wh

hone down. The birches wailed as they shook their frail twigs beneath a bitter wind. Leland was sensible of a distressing tingling in his numbed feet and hands. The young trooper beside him limped and

imes when the man who travels on horseback runs the risk of freezing, and, because horses might be wanted, farmers and police troopers had ridden instead of driving. Leland was capable

his nipped. We were sleeping way back up Long Traverse trail in a pit in the snow, and were too played-out to waken when the fire got low. The frost had the corporal by the morning, b

ept Arctic explorers, and they are expected to face it shelterless in the open for days together when occasion arises. They cannot always find a birch-bluff to camp in, and the snow is fre

ped up and down beating his mittened hands, with th

f the rustlers, and, so far as we can figure, they stand in together. The three or four of us can't be everywhere at once, and they might take a notion of getting

laws would have been almost a relief. He felt that Branscombe Denham had tricked him, but sincerely desired to stand well with his wife, in spite of her scornful attitude towards him. He did not blame her for that altogether, though her words still rankled, but he would not expose himself

good many friends, and nobody can tell exactly who's standing in with them. It's kind of easier to pick up an odd case of whisky and

he warning, were just then crouching, almost frozen, where the thinnest of the birches broke off abruptly, watching a group of vague, shadowy shapes moving in the

. "It's a sure thing. Snow's deep, and, as we figured, they'll sti

hape. They came on boldly, the men growling to one another and at the beasts. With no outriders forward, they plunged into the shadow of the birches. There the sounds grew louder, and the thud of hoofs, hoarse voices, crackle of trodden twigs, and creak

ut into the trail, with his carbine in his mittened hands. The trap was sprung, for, if one or two of the outlaws succeeded in breaking through, it was evident

ing to and fro, stopped abruptly, and held up his hand as th

ear somethin

ches swayed and wailed before a bitter gust. It seemed to search them to the marrow, for the cold was keen as a knife. The

. "It's even chances we don't

more swayed about them. It was almost dark, for the moon was still behind a cloud. As he moved his mittened hands on the Marl

" it said. "We hav

or a farmer's rifle, and a confused din broke out. Men shouted and scuffled in the gloom, loaded beasts

get into the saddle when they'd let the whisky go. That sounds like one of the boys after them. C

birches as the moon shone down. It sparkled on the dropping smear of snow-sh

shouted. "There are two of

rly unpleasant temper that night, and the prospect of an encounter stirred the half-frozen blood in him. He glanced over his shoulder, and saw the trooper standing a few paces away from him, and then fixed his gaze up the trail ahead. The horsemen were com

up before we pl

done during the cattle war, and they showed no sign of drawing bridle. One of them howled shrilly as he whirled a wh

shoulder as he aimed at the flying form of a horse. In another moment the outlaw was almost upon him. Then in savage recklessness he leapt forward instead of back, with a hand that sought the

into a bank of snow, and lay there for perhaps a minute wondering vaguely if the life had all been smashed out of him, and listening to a sound of scuffling and floundering close by. Next he essayed to draw one of his feet up, and, to his astonishment, f

r coat, was an object that did not move at all. The trooper, who now had no carbine, stood stooping a little as he looked down on it, and there was a curious significant stillnes

and his voice rang strained and harsh in the frosty air. "He ju

t in another moment he turned away with a little deprecat

it was that quick-he never wriggl

seen something very like it happen before, and h

ces when he wouldn't stop, and it's not your responsibilit

dropped on one knee beside the man, and

some kind of notion of

ed off, and you all came down together. You went down on the ice with a bang 'most fit to break it, and then into the snow-bank yo

t, but in another moment or two the trooper, who

our forehead. I've been watching, and it never struck me you'd better know

as a warm trickle running down the outside of his nose. His mittens showed red smears in the moonlight when he tried to brush it away. When he next loo

nd a line of loaded horses with two of the troopers watching them. The Sergeant

three must have got away," he said. "The boys will try to pick their tracks up, and I'

aching and he felt very dizzy. When at last he was about to turn off

all that's done," he said. "Still, it's a kind o

rly pleased any of them broke thro

't been for you, and that fellow's partner isn't going to blame-the trooper. That's all in the busines

er led a horse which carried an amorphous burden wrapped in a fur coat, and lashed on with a pack-lariat. Something that looked like a moc

fellow's partner will tr