The Killer

cluded. A wide, high gateway, that could be closed by massive doors, let into a stable yard, and seemed to be the only entrance. The buildings within were all immaculate also: evident

at did not satisfy me. My aroused mind, casting about, soon struck it: I was missing the swarms of blackbirds, linnets, purple finches, and doves that mad

idea. For the same reason, it insisted--lack of life: there were no birds here, not even _flies_! Of course, said I, gone to bed in the cool of evening: why should there be? I laughed aloud and hushed suddenly; and then nearly jumped out of my skin. The thin blue curl of smoke had caught my eye; and I became aware of the figure of a man seated on the ground, in the shadow, leaning against the building. The curl of smoke was from his cigarette. He was wrapped in a _serape_ w

s head, and sauntered to the nearest figure. He was lost in the dusk

find Mr. Hoo

ne side of the enclosure. He said no word, nor made another

rising character. Its centre was green grass, and about its border grew tall, bright flowers. A wide verandah ran about thr

er an interval it opened and I stood f

hands, which grasped the doorposts uncompromisingly to bar the way, were lean and veined and old. But all that I found in my recollections afterward to be utterly unimportant. His eyes were his predominant, his formidable, his compelling characteristic. They were round, the pupils very small, the irises

d I, "can you kee

ld cattle country. He continued

ed at length. His voice was

eem worth while to say anything about Box Springs only

aid, abruptly;

how to find the bunk house. Then a more or less dull evening, and a return the following day to coll

ne. They comprised generally a half dozen rooms with adobe walls and rough board floors, with only such furnishings as deal tables, benches, homemade chairs, perhaps a

clock on the other. I saw in passing framed steel engravings. The room beyond contained easy chairs, a sofa upholstered with hair cloth, an upright piano, a marble fireplace with a mantel, in a corner a triangular what-not filled with objects. It, too, was dim and curtained and faintly aromatic as had

ingerly, in the chai

or the night," he said, as though there had been

d a suggestion that I sh

_cantinas_[B] are undoubtedly by now in your ro

le pockets that f

oiselessly at my elbow. As a matter of fact, he came through an unnoticed door at the back, but he mi

f anything is lacking, I trust you will at once in

ched to the end of a short stick, darted across the room with the m

it," he finished his speech, calmly, as

ion as I left the room was of the baleful, dea

entered a bedroom. My guide slipped by me and disappeared before I had the chance of a