llow sand, green
sage-brush, burning cactus flowers, distant peaks of purple, all bathed
alike in the gorgeous crimson light of morning, two dark figures crept
with the stealthiness of Indians.

From behind the bush which had been their objective-point they could hear
and see the cattle moving in the brush below; then a horse on picket
snorted, and as they slid quietly down the bank they heard a sound which
made Babe snicker.

"Is that a cow chokin' to death," he whispered, "or one of them cherubs
merely sleepin'?"

In sight of the prone figures, they halted.

Smith, with his hat on, his head pillowed on his saddle, was rolled in an
old army blanket; while Tubbs, from a sitting position against a tree, had
fallen over on the ground with his knees drawn to his chin. His mouth,
from which frightful sounds of strangulation were issuing, was wide open,
and he showed a little of the whites of his eyes as he slumbered.

"Ain't he a dream?" breathed Babe in Ralston's ear. "How I'd like a
picture of that face to keep in the back of my watch!"

Smith's rifle was under the edge of his blanket, and his six-shooter in
its holster lay by his head; but Tubbs, with the carelessness of a green
hand and the over-confidence which had succeeded his nervousness, had
leaned his rifle against a tree and laid his six-shooter and
cartridge-belt in a crotch.

Ralston nodded to Babe, and simultaneously they raised their rifles and
viewed the prostrate forms along the barrels.

"Put up your hands, men!"

The quick command, sharp, stern, penetrated the senses of the men inert in
heavy sleep. Instantly Smith's hand was upon his gun. He had reached for
it instinctively even before he sat up.

"Drop it!" There was no mistaking the intention expressed in Ralston's
voice, and the gun fell from Smith's hand.

The red of Smith's skin changed to a curious yellow, not unlike the yellow
of the slicker rolled on the back of his saddle. Panic-stricken for the
moment, he grinned, almost foolishly; then his hands shot above his head.

A line of sunlight dropped into the creek-bottom, and a ray was caught by
the deputy's badge which shone on Ralston's breast. The glitter of it
seemed to fascinate Smith.

"You"--he drawled a vile name. "I orter have known!"

Still dazed with sleep, and not yet comprehending anything beyond the fact
that he had been advised to put up his hands, and that a stranger had
drawn an uncommonly fine bead on the head whic