The Border Legion

the cabin. He lay propped up on blankets and his saddle, while t

l these wild men-if she could ever sleep again. Yet she seemed more curious and wakeful than frightened. She had no way to explain it, but she felt t

. It blazed in red, fierce, hurried flames, wild to consume the logs. It cast a baleful and sinister color upon the hard faces there. Then the blackness of the enveloping night was pitchy, with

th hate and violence. The next two were not particularly individualized by any striking aspect, merely looking border ruffians after the type of Bill and Halloway. But Gulden, who sat at the end of the half-circle, was an object that Joan could scarcely bring her gaze to study. Somehow her first glance at him put into her mind a strange idea-that she was a woman and therefore of all creatures or things in the world the farthest removed from him. She looked away, and found her gaze returning, fascinated, as if she were a bird and he a snake. The man was of huge frame, a giant whose every move suggested the acme of physical power. He was an animal-a gorilla with a shock of light instead o

ifornia was a fame that he loved as much as the gold he stole. Joan sensed, through the replies of these men and their attitude toward Kells, that his power was supreme. He ruled the robbers and ruffians in his bands, and evidently they were scattered from Bannack to Lewiston and all along the border. He had power, likewise, over the border hawks not directly under his leadership. During the weeks of his enforc

cross from Salt Lake. Prospectors are workin' in hordes down from Bannack. All the gulches an' valleys in the Bear Mountains have their camps. Surface gold everywhere an' easy to get where there's water. But there's diggin's all ove

t from some other feller. I see the signs of a comin' strike somewhere in this region. Mebbe it's on now. There's thousands of prospectors in twos an' threes an' groups, out in the hills all over. They ain't a-goin' to tell when they do make a strike. But the gold must be brought out. An' gold is heavy. It ain't easy hid. Thet's how strikes are discovered. I shore reckon thet this year will beat '49 an' '51. An' fer two r

in his weak voice, "it'll be a

ueried Bate W

turned inquiring and intere

Legion," r

t?" asked Red P

ay is coming, then it's ripe for the greatest band ever

-hand, pard," replied

e, boss," ad

avy voice what the fuss was about. His query, his roused presence, seemed to act upon the others, even Kells, with a strange, disquieting

en. "I belonged to one once. It was in A

t's thet?" as

" replie

ome," said Red Pearce, admiring

ver. The border there was the last plac

'd yo

es. Wasn't many in th

aimed Wood, significantly. But h

Legion," said Kells, coolly.

right fellers. I've been in all kinds of

rom his fellows, except

we want?" ask

st and control. Then as lieutenants I'll need a few young

ll playin' faro, an' he asks for Jack Kells. Right off we all thought he was a guy who had a grievance, an' some of us was for pluggin' him. But I kinda liked him an' I cooled the gang down. Glad I did that. He wasn't wantin' to

s name?" a

he said," re

not amaze. From the moment Pearce began his speech she had been prepared for the revelation of her runaway lover's name. She trembled

heard of him. And I never forget

more'n twenty three. Hard rider, hard fighter, hard gambler an' drinker-re

is border. But I never knew one to impress you fellows as this Cleve.... Bate,

care fer anythin' or anybody on earth. He stirred us up. He won all the money we had in camp-broke most of us-an' give it all back. He drank more'n the whole outfit, yet didn't get drunk. He threw his gun on Beady Jones fer cheatin' an' then on Beady's pard, Chick Will

dled Luce," said Red Pearee. "You wa

man. Go ahead, Bat

usual, we was drinkin' an' playin'. But young Cleve wasn't doin' neither. He had a strange, moody spell thet day, as I recollect. Luce sprung a job on us. We never worked with him or his outfit, but mebbe-you can't tell what'd come off if it hadn't been for Cleve. Luce had a job put up to ride down where ole Brander was washin' fer gold, take what he had-AN' the girl. Fact was the gold was only incidental. When somebody cornered Luce he couldn't swear the

narrative. Wood had liked the telling, and it made his listeners thoug

you hear that

replied

ut this Jim Cleve-and

up when we get back to camp. The

panions! There was something wrong, something perverse in this Gulden. H

minal for the sake of crime. Joan regarded him with a growing terror-augmented the more because he alone kept eyes upon the corner where she was hidden-and she felt that compared with him the others, ev

ward sob. What he had done was terrible. It tortured her. She had not believed it in him. Yet, now she thought, how like him. All for her-in despair and spite-he had ruined himself. He would be killed out there in some drunken brawl, or, still worse, he would become a member of this bandit crew and d

and soon she was coming face to face with this changed Jim Cleve-this boy who had become a reckless devil. What would he do? What could she do? Might he not despise her, scorn her, curse her, taking her at Kells's word, the wife of

ndits, she had become another girl-a girl wholly become a woman, and one with a driving passion to save if it cost her life. She lost her fear of Kells, of t

sent was nothing. Only the future, that contained Jim Cleve, mattered to her. She would not have left the clutches of Kells, if at that moment she