forehead.

His dress, though typical of the country which he traversed, was
distinctive, or it might have been a certain natural grace that made
it seem so. He wore a light-gray, soft shirt made of French flannel, a
dark-blue silk scarf, leather chaps over olive-drab khaki trousers,
black, hand-sewed riding boots which displayed their polish despite a
coating of fine dust, silver spurs, and, strapped to his right thigh,
was a worn leather holster, natural color, from which protruded the
black butt of a six-gun.

On the back of his saddle was tied a black slicker, the raincoat of
the open country, which bulged with a medium-sized pack done up within
it.

One would have taken him to be thirty, perhaps a year or two more when
his face was serious; but when he smiled, that is, when he smiled
naturally, he looked little more in years than a youth who has just
attained his majority.

When he smiled the other smile--the smile he now expressed as he
looked up the slope toward the tall pine with the white square of
paper on its trunk--one would have forgotten the smile because of the
sinister, steel-blue look in his eyes, and the direct, piercing
quality of his gaze.

He walked his horse up the winding trail. His right foot was clear of
the stirrup, and he swung it idly. His left hand, in which he held the
reins, rested lightly on the horn of his saddle, and his right gripped
the cantle at his back. He hummed a ditty of the desert, but his gaze,
keen and alert, continually sought the open stretches of trail above
him, and at regular intervals flashed back along the way he had come.

In time he reached the top of the ridge and pulled up his horse near
the tree bearing the poster. He dismounted and walked slowly up a
little grade to where he could the better read the legend on the
paper.

It was printed in large letters, but recent rain had somewhat faded
it.

FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS REWARD
This will be paid for
THE COYOTE
dead or alive, by San Jacinto County.
JUDSON BROWN, J. P.,
Dry Lake.

This man is tall and light in complexion, gray or blue eyes, good
teeth, his horse said branded CC2, keeps himself neat, dangerous with
gun, squints when mad. Bring him in and get the money.

The man swore softly as he read the last sentence. "Bring him in an'
get the money," he s