led in the dust, unless,
indeed, he was pinioned by the fall of his horse, in which case they
would have the added glory of taking him alive.

By the time all these details were settled the pale moonlight was shot
through with the rose of dawn. Then, rapidly, the mountains lifted into
view, range beyond range, all their gullies deep blue and purple, and
here and there sharp triangles of snow. There was not a cloud, not a
trace of mist, and through the crisp, thin air the vision carried as if
through a telescope. They could count the trees on the upper ridges;
and that while the floor of the valley was still in shadow. This in turn
grew brilliant, and everywhere the sage brush glittered like foliage
carved in gray-green quartz.

It was then that they saw Dan Barry, while the dawn was still around
them, and before the sun pushed up in the east above the mountains. He
came winding down the bridle path with the dawn glittering on the side
of Satan, and a dark, swift form spiriting on ahead.

"Look at him!" muttered Sliver Waldron. "The damned wolf is a scout.
See him nose around that hummock? Watch him smell behind that bush. The
black devil!"

Bart, in fact, wove a loose course before his master, running here and
there to all points of vantage, as if he knew that danger lurked ahead,
but where he came close, with only the narrow passage between the
cliffs, he seemed to make up his animal brain that there could be no
trouble in so constricted a place, and darted straight ahead.

"They're ours," whispered Waldron. "Steady, boys. Gus, get your rope,
get ready!"

Gus tossed the noose a little wider, and gathered himself for the throw,
but it seemed as if the wolf saw or heard the movement. He stopped
suddenly and stood with his head high; behind him the rider checked the
black horse; all three waited.

"He's tryin' to get the wind," chuckled Waldron, "but the wind is ag'in'
our faces!"

It was only a slight breeze, but it came directly against the lurking
three; and moreover the scent of the sage was particularly keen at this
time of the day, and quite sufficient to blur the scent of man even in
the keen nostrils of Black Bart. Only for a second or so he stood there
sniffing the wind, a huge animal, larger than any wolf the three had
ever seen; his face wise in a certain bear-like fashion from the three
gray marks in the center of his forehead. Now he trotted ahead, and the
stallion broke into a gallop behind.

"My