could not resist a temptation which at that moment assailed him.
The threatening attitude of his captor for the instant had lost its
effect. If he died for it he must blurt out his almost superstitious
astonishment.

The half-breed seized his prisoner's lower jaw in his hand and
compressed the cheeks upon the teeth. Jim's lips parted, and a horrified
amazement found vent in words.

"Holy Gawd! man. But be ye flesh or sperrit? Peter Retief--as I'm a
livin'--"

He said no more, for, with a wrench, the gag was forced into his mouth
by the relentless hand of the man before him. Although he was thus
silenced his eyes remained wide open and staring. The dark stern face,
as he saw it, was magnified into that of a fiend. The keen eyes and
depressed brows, he thought, might belong to some devil re-incarnated,
whilst the eagle-beaked nose and thin-compressed lips denoted, to his
distorted fancy, a sanguinary cruelty. At the mention of his name this
forbidding apparition flashed a vengeful look at the speaker, and a half
smile of utter disdain flickered unnoticed around the corners of his
mouth.

Once his prisoners were secured the dark-visaged cattle-thief turned to
the horses. At a word the trio mounted. Then they rode off, and the
wretched captives beheld, to their unspeakable dismay, the consummate
skill with which the cattle were roused and driven off. Away they went
with reckless precipitance, the cattle obeying the master hand of the
celebrated raider with an implicitness which seemed to indicate a
strange sympathy between man and beast. The great golden chestnut raced
backwards and forwards like some well-trained greyhound, heading the
leading beasts into the desired direction without effort or apparent
guidance. It was a grand display of the cowboy's art, and, in spite of
his predicament and the cruel tightness of his bonds, Jim Bowley reveled
in the sight of such a display.

In five minutes the great herd was out of sight, and only the distant
rumble of their speeding hoofs reached the captives. Later, the moon, no
longer golden, but shedding a silvery radiance over all, shone down upon
a peaceful plain. The night hum of insects was undisturbed. The mournful
cry of the coyote echoed at intervals, but near by, where the camp fire
no longer put the fear of man into the hearts of the scavengers of the
prairie, all was still and calm. The prisoners moaned softly, but not
loud enough to disturb the peace of the perfect