ewoods,
and the choreman listened with careful attention. At the end of his
story Tresler added--

"You see, it's probably nothing. Of course, I know nothing as yet of
prairie ways and doings. No doubt it can be explained. But I argued
the matter out from my own point of view, and it struck me that two
horsemen, approaching the ranch under cover of the forest and a dark
night, and not venturing into the open after having arrived, simply
didn't want to be seen. And their not wishing to be seen meant that
their object in coming wasn't--well, just above suspicion."

"Tol'ble reasonin'," nodded Joe, chewing his cud reflectively.

"What do you make of it?"

"A whole heap," Joe said, spitting emphatically. "What do I make of
it? Yes, that's it, a whole heap. Guess that feller you see most of
had his face covered. Was that cover a mask?"

"It might have been."

"A red mask?"

"I couldn't see the color. It was too dark. Might have been."

Joe turned and faced his companion, and, hunching his bent knees into
his arms, looked squarely into his eyes.

"See here, pard, guess you never heard o' hoss thieves? They ain't
likely to mean much to you," he said, with some slight contempt. Then
he added, by way of rubbing it in, "You bein' a 'tenderfoot.' Guess
you ain't heard tell of Red Mask an' his gang, neither?"

"Wrong twice," observed Tresler, with a quiet smile. "I've heard of
both horse thieves and Red Mask."

"You've heard tell of hoss thieves an' Red Mask? Wal, I'm figgerin'
you've seen both to-night, anyway; an' I'll further tell you this--if
you'd got the drop on him this night an' brought him down, you'd 'a'
done what most every feller fer two hundred miles around has been
layin' to do fer years, an' you'd 'a' been the biggest pot in Montana
by sundown to-morrow." He spoke with an accent of triumph, and paused
for effect. "Say, ther' wouldn't 'a' been a feller around as wouldn't
'a' taken his hat off to you," he went on, to accentuate the
situation. "Say, it was a dandy chance. But ther', you're a
'tenderfoot,'" he added, with a sigh of profound regret.

Tresler was inclined to laugh, but checked himself as he realized the
serious side of the matter.

"Well, if he were here to-night, what does it portend?" he asked.

"If he was here to-night it portends a deal," said Joe, sharply. "It
portends that the biggest 'tough,' the biggest man-killer an' hoss
thief in the country, is on the war-path, an' ther'll be t