Bull Hunter

by his host. One glance at the spindling wooden legs of the canvas-bottomed cot was enough for

s later Bull was on the trail out of Johnstown. There was only one trail for a horseman south of Johnstown, and that trail followed the win

into Glenn Crossing in the gloom of the second evening. But raisins are meager support for such a bulk as that of Bull Hunter. It was a gaunt-faced giant who looked in at the door of the shop where the blacksmith was working late.

erved to put him on the heels of the horseman, and now he must follow straight down country and attempt to match his long legs against the speed of a fine horse. He d

akfast. A tousled girl, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, served him in the kitchen. The first glimpse of the hollow cheeks and the unshaven face of Bull Hunter quite awakened her. Bull could feel her watching him, as she glided about the room

a hand touched his shoulders, and he turned and looked suspiciously down into the face of the girl. It was a frightened face, he thought, and very pretty. At s

softly, "what are y

was still bewildered by the change in her-something

can hide you, easy. Nobody could find where I'll put you,

than an annoyance. She was placing a value on him, just as Jessie, three days before, had placed a value on him; and it disturbed Bull. For so many years, he had been mo

pile of heart to keep going. Maybe"-he paused, uncertain what to say next, and yet obviously she expected somet

sudden color and that queer, pleased smile. It would be long before Bull understood, but, ev

d he settled to a different step through the thin sand-a short, choppy step. His weight was against him here,

eyes, which comes with shadows under the lids and a constant frown on the forehead. It was long afterward that men checked up his march from date to date and discovered that the distance b

to Halstead on that late afternoon no one had ever heard of the man out of the mo

-faced mother came to the porch and shaded her eyes to look. She passed on the word with a call that traveled from house to house. So that, when Bull entered the long, irregular

s center unobserved. A pair of staring eyes to Bull was like the pointing of a loaded gun. He put unspoken sent

to be a

nd as a hoss he'd do pretty well,

the pulverized sand squirting up about his heavy boots and drifting in a mist behind him. When he was gone an old man came out and measured those great strides with his e

short sleeves had bothered him and they were now cut off at the elbow and exposed the sun-blackened forearms; his overalls streamed in rags ove

with iron-gray hair and a thin face and quick ways of acting and little, thin hands.

of the veranda floor raised him so that he was actually some inches above the head of his interlocutor, and the tall man was deeply grateful for that advantage. He was, in truth, a little vain of his own height, and to have to look up

sked. "Mightn't you be a partner of Pete's? Kind of l

airs to hear the answer. It puzzled him. For some mysterious reason these men disapproved of any

e Reeve," said Bu

re follerin'

see him, you know

his head aside and cast at his audience a prodigious wink. The cloudy eyes of Bull had ass

ng back to Bull. "You expect me to believe ta

Bull, overawed and

and sauntered to the edge of the veranda, the better to see the baiti

, I'm Sheriff Bill Anderson!" He waited to s

heriff Bill Anderson," said

s with much coughing and clearing of the throat. It seeme

l you, partner, that I'm a pile suspicious. I'm suspicious of any

ed his weight to the other foot. "Something less'n not

to see him? What d

ve had met and shot down Uncle Bill Campbell. For Bill Campbell was a historic figure as a fighter in the mountain regions, and surely his face must be

hing good,"

the floor of the veranda with a stiff-legged hop an

Bull, "d'you know anything agin' this Pete Reeve? I wan

?" aske

for all these years, he's been going around killing and maiming men, and nobody has been able to bring him up for anything worse'n self-defense. But now I think I got him to rights, and I want to hang him for it, stranger

, and he had a child's instinctive knowledge of the mental processes of others. In this case he felt a profound distrust. There was something wrong about this sheri

," he said, "may

that'll help me to hang Reeve. And if it is, I'll need to know it. Understand? Public benefi

uter room with its warped floor creaking under the tread of Bull Hunter. Next they came face to face with a cage of steel bars, and behind it was a little gray man on a bu

the bars, grasping one in each great hand, and with his face presse

. "Bringing on another on