ll, the bully's doings were no concern of his. So he waited until the
sound of receding footsteps had died out, and then passed round the
back of the shed and strolled on.

There was nothing now in front of him but the dense black line of the
boundary pinewoods. These stretched away to the right and left as far
as the darkness permitted him to see. The blackness of their depths
was like a solid barrier, and he had neither time nor inclination to
explore them at that hour. Therefore he skirted away to the right,
intending to leave the forest edge before he came to the rancher's
house, and so make his way back to his quarters.

He was approaching the house, and it loomed dark and rigid before him.
Gazing upon it, his mind at once reverted to its blind owner, and he
found himself wondering if he were in bed yet, if Diane had retired,
and in which portion of the house she slept.

His pipe had gone out again, and he paused to relight it. He had his
matches in his hand, and was about to strike one, when suddenly a
light flashed out in front of him. It came and was gone in a second.
Yet it lasted long enough for him to realize that it came from a
window, and the window, he knew, from its position, must be the window
of Julian Marbolt's bedroom.

He waited for it to reappear, but the house remained in darkness; and,
after a moment's deliberation, he realized its meaning. The door of
the blind man's room must be opposite the window, and probably it was
the opening of it that had revealed the lamplight in the hall. The
thought suggested the fact that the rancher had just gone to bed.

He turned his attention again to his pipe; but he seemed destined not
to finish his smoke. Just as he had the match poised for a second
time, his ears, now painfully acute in the stillness about him, caught
the sound of horses' hoofs moving through the forest.

They sounded quite near; he even heard the gush of the animals'
nostrils. He peered into the depths. Then, suddenly realizing the
strangeness of his own position lurking so near the house and under
cover of the forest at that hour of the night, he dropped down in the
shadow of a low bush. Nor was it any too soon, for, a moment or two
later, he beheld two horsemen moving slowly toward him out of the
black depths. They came on until they were within half a dozen yards
of him, and almost at the edge of the woods. Then they drew up and sat
gazing out over the ranch in silent contemplation.