The Law-Breakers

wn Station in Amberley. It consisted of two rooms and a loft in the pitch of the roof. Its furniture was reduced to a minimum, and every

telephone was close to his hand, while the non-commi

ughts were free to wander whithersoever they listed. This was an interim of waiting, when all preparations were made for the work in hand, and there was nothing to do but await developments. So used was he to this

e demanding quick thought and quicker action, where life, frequently his own, hung in the balance. Yet the most strenuous of them f

andful of men pitted against a country eaten up with every form of criminal disease. There were others, again, who insisted that far more crime slipped through his well "oiled" hands than ever was held by them. These were the people who sneered at his reputation for stern discipline, and declared it to be a

so, for patience, a wonderful purposeful patience, was his greatest characteristic. Every other feature of his personality was subservient to it, and so it was that th

. His patience only masked a keen, swift-moving, scheming brain, packed to the uttermost with a wonderful instinct for detection. He worked on no rule-of-thumb

f things. He saw advancement in it-advancement in the right direction. In five years he had raised himself from the lowest rung of the pol

ing aloud of the fortunes lying hidden within its bosom. There was official service upon higher planes, from which so many names were drawn to fill the roll of fame to be

fulfilment before that further upward movement began. It was the more human side of the man dictating its will upon him, that will wh

xtracted from it, the hot, living fires were stirring in his veins. His mind had gone back to a picture, one of the many

pictures, which aways came with a rush, changing and changing with kaleido

r of land which dropped away at his feet. It was one of those wondrous fairy scenes with which the prairie, in her friendlier moods, delights to charm the eye. Perhaps "mock" would

the land; it was the landmark which had guided him to this obscure village of Rocky Springs. It had been in his eye all the morning as he rode toward it

ich he beheld reposing beneath its shadow. A girl was sitting, half reclining, against the dark

so deep and darkly beautiful that the man caught his breath. Just for one unconscious moment Stanley Fyles ha

a melting luster in the velvet softness of her deeply fringed eyes. Her features were sufficiently irregular to escape the accusation of classic form, and possessed

in spite of the summer blaze. To his fired imagination she belonged to a canvas painted by some old master whose portrayals suggested a strength and depth of charact

or something-something unattainable. Such was her look of strength and virility that h

him in from his prairie hat to his well-booted feet. They passed swiftly over his dark patrol jacket, with its star upon its shoulder, a

?" she said, with a rising infl

He was taken aback at th

ponded to her still smiling eyes. "And-that's Rocky Springs?" he inqu

irl n

ge that's full of everything inte

smiled

why I'

hed a merry,

of righteousness compared with this place. Look," she cried, rising from the ground and reaching out one beautifully rounded arm in the direction of the nestling houses, amid their setting of green woods, with the silvery gleam of the river peeping up as it wound its sluggish summer way through the heart of the v

st the green slope of the far side of the valley. Then, as she suddenly dropped her arm, and began to gather up the se

" he said, cheerfully. "I'd say if it wasn't for your Rocky Springs, and its like, we should be chasing

d speaking the girl's work

r his inspection of the tree. "It goes right on down to the saloon. You see," she a

wn the slope, and, in a moment, was lo

focus. He had seen and spoken to her many times since then, for his duty frequently took him into the neighborhood of that aged pine. But in spite of her frankness

r whetted, till, in time, he finally realized that the long anticipated

atures, that pleasant half-smile of satisfaction. He wanted her very much. He wanted her so much that all impulse to rush headlong and make her his was thrust aside. He must wait-wait with the same patience w

bts, when a sharp knock at his door banished the last vestige of roman

om

, and the tall figure of the corp

el

with the sharp r

mpers' have dropped off the two hindermost cars and held the crew prisoners. Seems the train was flagged on the bend out of the hills and the

is eyes were lowered at a point of interest on the floor.

got the mess

s,

the other stepped bac

he outer office. His eyes

he message?" the

t a paper in

t came

er as he read the long story of the "hold-up" w

officer read the news which so co

e man Huntly with one inquiring g

he road into Rocky Springs. Rocky Springs is twenty-two miles from White Point. They've probably had an hour's start with a heavily loaded wagon. Rocky Springs is twenty-six from here by trail. Good. Say, te

s,

picked up the telephone, ignoring the sti

ne bell rang out and th

ng up to barracks right away. It's most important. I