, as Kate heard the
shuffle of a horse's feet.

"Home."

"They ain't burned your shack?" Bradley asked with a half chuckle.

Kate just heard the man's reply: "Not yet."

The hoofbeats drew away. Kate cautiously pushed back her curtain.

The late moon was shining in an old and ghostly light. Distant heights
rose like black walls against the sky. At intervals a peak broke
sharply above the battlements, or a rift in a closer sierra opened to
show the stars.

Kate could hear but could not for some time see the galloping horseman.
Then of a sudden he reached the brow of a low hill and rode swiftly out
into the spectral light. There he halted. Horse and rider stood for a
moment silhouetted against the sky. The horse chafed at his bit. He
stretched his head restively into the north, his rider sitting
motionless, a somber flat hat crowning his spare figure. For barely a
moment the man sat thus immovable. Then he turned slightly in the
saddle and the horse struck off into the night.

Drowsiness had deserted the tired girl that watched him. While her
companions slept she sat in the solitude waiting for day. Bradley, as
good as an alarm dock, was stirring with the first streak and feeding
his horses. He told his passengers that the bridges were all out and
he was going back to the ford.

Belle, incredulous, when first told by Kate of a visitor in the night,
had no scruples in asking questions:

"Who was here last night, Bill?"

"Wha'd' y' mean?" he countered, gathering up his lines.

"What man was it, you were talking to?" she demanded.

"I guess if I was talkin' to any man," he grumbled, "I was talkin' in
my sleep. You must 'a' been 'a' dreamin'."

"Oh, come now, 'fess up, Bill." Belle nodded toward Kate. "She was
awake."

Bradley started the horses, shifted on the box and looked not too well
pleased: "I wasn't talkin' to nobody last night----"

"Bill, what a whopper."

"If you mean this mornin'----" he went on, doggedly.

"Well--who was here?"

"Jim Laramie."

"Jim Laramie!" echoed Belle, catching her breath and poking Kate with
her elbow. "Wonder he didn't hold us up."

Bradley scowled but said nothing.

"Bradley doesn't like that," murmured Belle to Kate, as soon as the
creaking of the wheels gave her a chance to speak without his hearing.
"He's a friend of Jim's."

"Where did he come from?" continued Belle, raising her voice toward
Bradley.

Bradley took his time to answer: "Cla