145
XXI. A Capture 151
XXII. A Second Capture 160
XXIII. Quick Facts 165
XXIV. The Show-down 170
XXV. Filed! 175
XXVI. The Prodigal 179
XXVII. The Desert Code 185
XXVIII. A Night Summons 194
XXIX. Gunmen 201
XXX. The Sheriff's Plight 207
XXXI. A New Count 215
XXXII. The Compass Fails 220
XXXIII. Fast Work 224
XXXIV. The Compass Wavers 230
XXXV. Guns in the Night 235
XXXVI. The Loot 242
XXXVII. The Test of a Man 245
XXXVIII. Ten Miles' Start 250

THE COYOTE

CHAPTER I

REWARDS OFFERED

The sign on the tree attracted the man's attention while he was still
far down the slope. He could see the tall pine on the crest of the
ridge above a veritable landmark in that country of stunted timber,
and the square of paper, tacked to its trunk under the lowest
branches, gleamed white against the background of vivid green.

The air was clear, and every detail of the landscape--the red rocks,
the saffron-colored slopes, the green pines and firs and buck brush,
the white cliffs--everything within sight for miles stood out,
clean-cut in the brilliant sunshine which flooded the empty land under
a cloudless sky.

When the man, mounted on a lean, dun-colored horse, first looked up at
a turn of the narrow trail and saw the sign, he grunted. Then he
frowned and looked back along the way he had come with a glowing light
of reflection in his gray eyes. He was a tall man, slim and muscular,
clean-shaven, his face and hands bronzed by sun and wind, and his face
open and good-natured. A shock of blond hair showed where his gray,
wide-brimmed, high-crowned hat was pushed back from his high