ost with
milk and cream, butter and eggs, of better quality and lower price than
could possibly be had in town. He knew the best hunting and fishing on
the range. He had teams and "rigs" at all times at the service of
officers and soldiers, when the post ambulance was forbidden by an
unfeeling government. He had a corral and stockade that had more than
once bidden stout defiance to both the law and the lawless. He had, so
the fort children firmly believed, a subterranean passage from his
stockade to the sentry-lines. He was hated by both sheriff and sutler
in days when the latter lived and thrived; he overreached the one,
undersold the other, and outwitted both. He befriended every soldier in
a scrape, whether the offence were against the majestic letter of the
civil law or only the unimportant spirit of the military. In the eyes
of the few he was much of a sinner; in the eyes of the many no less of
a saint; and, after careful casting up of accounts, the colonel of the
--th Cavalry had declared Shiner far more good than bad, treated him
accordingly, and won a surprised and devoted friend and ally. Another
officer Shiner swore by was Dr. Graham, and for reasons similar to
those of his fellow, and farther-distant, ranchman Ross.

Yet Geordie had often heard of mysterious doings at Shiner's that would
not bear official investigation--had heard and kept silent. In those
days Shiner dwelt close under the sheltering wing of a sympathetic
garrison. Now, if still there, he must be living in the light, and for
the first time it dawned upon Geordie that what he heard of Shiner in
by-gone days and kept to himself, he could not hear and know and keep
to himself now. It was one thing to be a garrison boy; it was another
to be an officer in the army of the United States.

The instant that it dawned upon him that Nolan and his friends were
heading across country for Shiner's old plant, riding hard in the
belief that they were pursued by rail, it flashed upon him that he
could not join Nolan there--indeed, he must, if a possible thing, guide
or direct him elsewhere.

Already the pursued were through the ford and, with dripping flanks,
were scrambling up the opposite shore. Already big 705 was almost
abreast of them, and in another moment would be swiftly speeding by.
It was two years since Geordie last set eyes on Nolan, but there was no
mistaking, even at that distance, the tall, gaunt figure and the
practised seat in saddle. Behin