The Mysterious Rider

they're really bad. An' that works the other way round. If a dog's born to run wild an' be a sheep-killer, that's what he'll be. I've k

ught had no good masters, judgin' from

avy bay you can hear for miles. So that makes up for Jim's one fault. These two hounds hang together, an' with them I'm developin' others. Denver will split off of bear or lion track

s?" asked

cause I licked him, an' once good an' hard when he bit me.... But he doesn't cotton to me worth a damn. He's get

airie-schooner, comin' across the plains. His mo

e other day, when the hounds treed a lion an' went howlin' wild, Kane came up, an' he looked disgusted an' went off by himself. He hunts by himself, anyhow. First off I thought he

a dog like thet'd come handy. An' if he takes to Collie an' you

lie walks an' rides alone a good

st ways, but she'd never kill anythin'.... Wade, you ain't

long as she doesn'

rode up out of the valley,

to, for I've cautioned her. Fact is I've run across some hard-lookin' men between h

w, Wade, are you connectin' up them strangers

s that," returned Wade. "Bu

... It's gettin' along toward October. Snow'll be flyin' soo

ther does Lewis.

d Buffalo Park, lookin' fer gold. He's be

estin' news. You see he's been worryin' about this gang thet's rangin' around Buffalo Park, an' he's tried to get a line on them. Somebody took a shot at him in the woods. He couldn't swear it was one of th

's not been square with friends of mine in Elgeria. But no one ever proved him crooked, whatever was though

quietly. "I knew Smith. He's as bad as the West makes them. I ga

. It's a small world.... Wade, I'll keep

ction between Smith an' this gang of strangers--

. Not enough to make any rancher holler, an' I reckon there never will be any more of t

'm telli

' hell-bent happenin's to come hyar at White

hard to catch, an' if he's caught there'll be shootin' to pay. He's cunnin' an' has had long experience. It's not likely he'd work openly, as he did

ke thet, no matter how deep or cunnin' they are, always come to a b

else, an' was sure little enough

e White Slides one place thet'll disprove your name. All the sa

ully away, leaving the hunte

soliloquized Wade. "Maybe--maybe so. But I don't see any yet.... Strange how a man will s

ticular dog came about by accident. Somewhere in the big corral there was a hole where the smaller dogs could escape, but Wade had been unable to find it

rral, searching for this mysterious vent, a rather small dog, with short gray and brown wool

es of friendship that Wade gave him close scrutiny. He was neither young nor comely nor thoroughbred, but there was something in his intelligent eyes that struck the hunter signif

he could find the hole. The dog went with him, watching with knowing eyes that the hunter imagined actually laughed at him. But they were glad eyes, which began to make an appeal. Presently, when Wade came to a rough

g. "You found it for me, didn't you? Good dog! Now I'll fix that hol

ken out hunting, and therefore little or no attention had been paid him. Very shortly Fox showed himself to be a dog of superior intellige

Fox worked out a labyrinthine trail that Sampson gave up and Jim failed on. This delighted Wade, and that night he tried to find out from Andrews, who sold the dog to Belllounds, something about Fox. All the information obtainable was that Andr

that I couldn't let her

, as he rode alon

ight of the hunter, and never uttering a single bark or yelp; and without any particular eagerness he would stick until he had found the game or until he was called off. Bear and cat tracks, however, roused the savage instinct in him, and transformed him. He yelped at every jump on a trail, and whenever his yelp became piercing and continuous Wade well knew the quarry was in sight. He fought bear like a wise old dog that knew when to rush in with a snap and when to keep away. When lions or

eflective foreshadowing of events at White Sli

rankled in the mind of Wade--he left Moore's cabin, leading a pack-hor

! I was raised on elk meat. Now hyar, more'n a week ago I told you I wanted some. There's elk all arou

a circumstance. The fact was Wade admired and loved the elk above all horned wild animals. So strange was h

grateful spirit, obeyed and suffered with a patience that was fine. There had been no improvement in his injured foot. Wade worried about that much more than Moore. The thing that mostly occupied the cowboy was the near approach of October first, with its terrible possibility for him. He did not talk about it,

him and relying upon him, had come to love him. That was the most beautiful and terrible fact of his life--beautiful because it brought back the past, her babyhood, and his barren years, and gave him this sudden change, where he lived transported with the sense and the joy of his possession. It was terrible because she was unhappy, because she was chained to duty and honor, beca

had only his subtle and intuitive assurance that matters would turn out well for her in the end. To trus

er! Lord! they're so young an' life must be so hot an' love so sweet! I reckon that's why I couldn't let her marry Jack.... But, on the other hand, there's the old man's faith in his son, an' there's Collie's faith in herself an' in life. Now I believe in that. An' the years have proved to me ther

siderations for the time being. This was owing to the fact that he rested upon a de

s. Presently the long black slope of spruce confronted him, with its edge like a dark wall. He entered the fragrant forest, where not a twig st

f the mountain bluff far above. This was new forest to him, consisting of moderate-sized spruce-trees growing so closely together that he had to

patch, where the sunlight fell strongly. It turned out to be a swale, or swampy place, some few acres in e

d. Fox wagged his stumpy tail and looked up with knowing eyes. Wade proceeded cautiously. The swamp was a rank growth of long, weedy grasses and ferns, with here and there a gre

ismounted. "Heard us comin'. Now, Fox, st

d to catch his breath and listen, he heard faint snapping of dead branches far above. At length he reached the top of the mountain, to find a wide, open space, with heavy forest in front, and a bare, ghastly, burned-over district to his right. Fox growled, an

unter to the anxious dog. But perhaps tha

logs, trees that had been killed first by fire and then felled by wind. Here and there a lofty, spectral trunk still withstood the blasts. Across the hollow sloped a considerable area where all trees were dead and still standing--a melancholy sight. Beyond

grass where beds had b

fresh tracks, too!... Now I wonder if it wouldn't do to

ss before him. If there was any living animal in sight it did not move. Wade crossed the hollow, wended a circuitous route through the upstanding forest of dead timber, and entered a thick woods that skirted the rim

m, small as little deer tracks, showing that they had just

ht of the sheep. They had gone over the steep rim as if they had wings. "

heless, he could not locate them. Fox waited impatiently for the word to let him

ck-of-all-dogs," reproving

de left the rim to ride down these slow-descending half-open ridges, where cedars grew and jack-pines stood in clumps, and little grassy-bordered brooks babbled between. He saw tracks where a big buck

here three tiny brooklets united to form a stream of pure, s

ever named this brook had no sense.... Yet here, at its source

k that morning. There were many tracks, like cow tracks, only smaller, deeper, and more oval; and ther

e trooping up the opposite slope, scarcely a hundred yards distant. They had heard or scented him, but did not appear alarmed. They halted to look back. The hunter's quick estimate credited nearly two dozen to the herd, mostly cows. A magnificent bull, with wide-spreading antlers, and black head and shoulders and gray hind quarters, stalked out from the herd, and stood an instant, head aloft, splendidly significant of the wild. Then he trotte

and brought them back to where F

a sunrise," said Wade. "Strange how we're made so

rd enough going in any event. From time to time Wade halted to rest the burdened pack-animal. At length he came to a trail he had himself made, which he now proceeded to follow. It led out of the basin, through burned and boggy ground and down upon the forest slope, thence to the grassy and aspened uplands. One aspen grove, where he had rested before, faced the west, and, for reasons hard

uivering canopy of gold tinged with green, and below clustered the asters, thick as stars in the sky, waving, nodding, swayi

first few moments of exquisite riot of his senses, where fragrance of grass and blossom filled the air, and blaze of gold canopied the purple, he began to think how beautiful the earth was, how Nature hid her rarest gifts for those who loved her most, how goo

f their season, in that perennial birth so gracious and promising. The aspen leaves would quiver and slowly gild, the grass would wave in the w

uld not always return