Raw Gold

his was. From where I lay I could see the fingers of his left hand shut tight over his thumb, pressing till the knuckles were white and the cords in

tion, rapid-fire gun-fighter, and only the fact that Piegan was half drunk and the other performing an impersonal duty had so far prevented the opening of a large-sized package of trouble. While on the surface Smith had all the best of it, he needed that advantage, and more,

the policeman faced the frowning gun, motionless, waiting for the flutter of Pie

le Force, you know, even if you managed to kill me. You know the s

ht crook without warning. It was one of those long moments that makes a fellow draw his breath sharp when he thinks about it afterward. If any one had made an unexpected move just then, there would have been sudden death in that camp. And while the lot of us sat and stood about perfectly motionl

vaporating, changing on the instant to admiration for the other's cold-blooded courage. "Yuh spilled all the whisky, darn yuh-but then I gues

mith, and Piegan, to show that his intentions were good, impulsively un

ombre like you," he grunted. "I gues

tripping the saddle and bridle from his

turned at the sound of my voice with vastly more conce

aimed. "Beats the devil

I retorted, an

m that was never hard to wake. But his looks gave no hint of the real man under the surface placidity; you'd never have guessed what possibilities lay behind that immobile face, with its heavy-lashed hazel eyes and plain, thin-lipped mouth that tilted up just a bit at the corners. We had parted in the Texas Panhandle five years before-an unexpected, involuntary separation that grew out of a poker game with a tough crowd. The tumultuous events of that night sent me North in un

was snoring energetically, his grizzled face bared to the cloudless sky. The camp grew still, except for the rough and ready cook pottering about the fire, boiling buffalo-me

he asked whimsically. "It beats punching cows, though-that is,

in the cow business last time I saw you. What did y

he said, "and I joined for lack of something better to do. You'll find us a cosmopolitan lot, a

for the first time the gilt bars on his coat sleeve. "You've got pa

in the service. Got to be a sergeant; I'm in charge of a line-post on Milk River-

ght to see you up here. I thought you'd settled down for keeps; supposed you were playing major-domo for the Double R

trail is liable to fork and lead you to new countries and new faces, or maybe plumb over the bi

ynic," I told hi

ing non-treaty Indians onto reservations, and raising hell generally in the name of the law. Still, I don't take life as seriously as I used to. What's the use? We eat and drink and sleep

e a rattling good policeman. I can see where a calm, dispassionate

ldn't have done this sort of work. I've changed, I reckon. There was a time when I'd have felt that there was only one way to settle a row like I just had. And the chances are that I would have wound up by puttin

and at the same instant the cook sounded the long call. So we broke off our chat, and getting a tin plate and

g a point to have even one night's shelter at a Police camp in that semi-hostile country. There were no road-agents to speak of, for sums of money large enough to tempt gentry of that ilk seldom passed over those isolated trails; but here and there stray parties of Stonies and Blackfeet, young bucks in war-paint and breech-clout, hot on the trail of their first medicine, skulked warily among the coulée-scarred ridges, keeping in touch with the drifting buffalo-herds and alert f

or you. It's only a matter of time till somebody takes you in, because your whisky is making lots of nasty work for us these days, and we've got orders from the big chief to nail you if there's a show. I'm p

looked up with a smile that broadened to a grin. "You're all right," he said cheer