venomous sarcasm.

"Scared!" he said. "Scared out clean--like a bunch of coyotes runnin'
from the daylight!" He made a strange sound with his lips, expressing
his unutterable contempt for men so weakly constituted.

"Quit!" he grated. "Quit clean because a tenderfoot comes out here and
tries to run things! So long as things come your way you're willing to
stick it out, but when things go the other way--Ugh!"

He turned abruptly, strode out through the door, mounted his pony, and
rode rapidly down the street. Several of the men, who went to the door
after his departure, saw him riding furiously toward the Circle Cross.

Then one of his former friends laughed harshly--sarcastically. "I reckon
that there tenderfoot is botherin' Big Bill a whole lot," he said as he
turned to the bar.

* * * * *

It had been a busy day for Hollis. His hand had been shaken so much that
it pained him. The day had been a rather warm one for the season and so
when late in the afternoon Norton rode into town, "To see the
excitement," he told Hollis, the latter determined to make the return
trip to the Circle Bar in the evening. Therefore, after a short
conference with Judge Graney and Allen--and a frugal, though wholesome
supper in the Judge's rooms back of the court house--which Allen
cooked--he and Norton rode out upon the Coyote trail and jogged quietly
toward the Circle Bar.

There was a good moon; the air was invigorating, though slightly chill,
and the trail lay clear and distinct before them, hard after the rain,
ideal for riding.

Many times during the first half hour of the ride Norton looked
furtively at his chief. Certain things that Mrs. Norton had told him
held a prominent place in his thoughts, and mingling with these thoughts
was the recollection of a conversation that he had held with Hollis one
day when both of them had been riding this same trail and Hollis had
stopped off at the Hazelton cabin. Many times Norton smiled. He would
have liked to refer to that conversation, but hesitated for fear of
seeming to meddle with that which did not concern him. He remembered the
days of his own courtship--how jealously he had guarded his secret.

But the longer his thoughts dwelt upon the incident that had been
related to him by Mrs. Norton the harder it became to keep silent. But
he managed to repress his feelings for the first half hour and then,
moved by an internal mirth that simply