alley romanticists. It was
not even odd to us that no one in all these years had stolen or
desecrated the pathetic mementos of a vanished life. People on the
frontier have a great respect--a respect not necessarily enforced with
lock and key--for the belongings of another. The mountings of the gun
were of solid silver, but I doubt if even Mr. Horton could have
justified himself to himself in taking it. I had been in the place
once or twice and had turned over the untelling leaves with reverent
fingers, but I had never felt any inclination to linger within the
gloomy walls; the sunlight on the cattle trail outside had greater
allurements, but now, beaten by the hail, I rushed in headlong, and in
doing so nearly fell over the body of a man lying outstretched on the
stone floor, just within the entrance. The man was evidently sleeping,
and very soundly, for my tumultuous rush roused him so little that he
merely turned on one side, sighed, and again relapsed into deepest
slumber. I stood in my tracks, trembling, undecided whether to dash
out into the storm or run the risk of remaining in the cavern. The
fierce rattle of the hail beating on the rocks outside decided me to
do the latter. Noiselessly, step by step, I stole backward into the
darkness of the cavern. My backward progress was checked at last by
the corner of the table against which I brought up. I glanced down at
it. It was laden with a regular cowboy equipment of spurs, quirt,
revolver, cartridge-belt, and the too common accompaniment of a
bottle of whiskey. If the sleeping man on the floor were called
on to defend himself for any cause he need not suffer for want
of ammunition. I had less fear of his awakening since seeing the
half-emptied bottle, but far greater fear of what he might do when
he did awake.

Surely, there never was a wiser dog than Guard! He had not made a
sound since our entrance, although he had certainly cocked a
disdainful eye at the recumbent figure on the floor as we passed
it. Now, in obedience to the warning of my uplifted finger, he
crept silently to my side. He watched my movements with an air of
intelligent comprehension as I quietly took possession of the bottle,
revolver, and cartridge-belt, and then followed me without a sound as
I stole breathlessly into the deepest recess of the cavern. The rocky
roof sloped down over this recess, until, at its farthest extremity,
there was scarcely room for a person to crouch under it, close to