sassinate him at any time for a
hundred dollars; Van Horn, now that he was aware Laramie liked Kate,
would do it for nothing. Laramie, indeed, realized that if he stood in
Van Horn's way with a woman he would not figure any more in Harry's
calculations than a last year's birds' nest. And back of all loomed
rancorous Barb Doubleday.

How, he asked himself, could a girl like Kate, pick such a bear for a
father? All of which troublesome thinking brought him no nearer a
solution of his difficulties. He had his life to look out for, Hawk to
take care of and a strong-willed girl to bring to his way of thinking.

He reached, at last, the conclusion that the sooner he knew whether he
could leave his own place and ride to and from Sleepy Cat without being
"potted" from ambush, the sooner he would know what to do next.
Persuading himself that the watch would wait for him somewhere down the
road, Laramie, making coffee and cooking bacon, breakfasted, made his
final preparations for death by shaving himself with a venerable razor,
and rifle in hand, got down as directly and briskly as possible to the
corral. He got up a horse, rode back into the hills, and recovering
his saddle, started for Simeral's. Having spoken with Ben, Laramie
made a detour that brought him out on the creek a mile below his usual
trail. Thence he rode as contentedly as possible on his way.

The country for a few miles ahead was adapted for ambuscades. The
valley was comparatively narrow and afforded more than one vantage
point for covering a traveler. It was wholly a matter, Laramie felt,
of bluffing it through. And beyond keeping a brisk pace with his
horse, he could do nothing to protect himself. "You're a fool for
luck, Jim," he remembered Hawk's saying once to him, "but you'll get it
sometime on your fool's luck, just the same."

When old Blackbeard, as he sometimes called Hawk--though no one else
ventured to call him that--uttered the warning, it made no impression
on Laramie. Now it came back. Not unpleasantly, nor as a dread--only
he did recall at this time the words--which was more than he had ever
done before. And he reflected that it would be very awkward for Hawk,
if their common enemies should get his nurse at this particular time.

While this was running through his mind, he was not sorry to notice
ahead of him the dust of the down stage. At that particular stretch of
the road it would be less nerve-wearing to ride beside it a