ang for it, after what Dillon did for him."

There came the faint sound of creaking leather as their horses moved up
the hill.

The outlaw waited till they were out of hearing before he crept into the
open. Across the face of the slope he cut obliquely, working always
toward higher ground. His lips were drawn back so that the
tobacco-stained teeth showed in a snarl of savage rage. It would go ill
with any of the posse if they should stumble on him. He would have no
more mercy than a hunted wild beast.

With every minute now his chances of safety increased. The riders were
far above him and to the left. With luck he should reach Piceance Creek
by morning. He would travel up it till he came to Pete Tolliver's place.
He would make the old man give him a horse. Not since the night he had
been ridden out of Bear Cat on a rail had he seen the nester. But Pete
always had been putty in his hands. It would be easy enough to bully him
into letting him have whatever he wanted. All he needed was a saddled
mount and provisions.

Houck was on unfamiliar ground. If there were settlers in these hills he
did not know where they were. Across the divide somewhere ran Piceance
Creek, but except in a vague way he was not sure of the direction it
took. It was possible he might lay hold of a horse this side of
Tolliver's. If so, he would not for a moment hesitate to take it.

All night he traveled. Once he thought he heard a distant dog, but though
he moved in the direction from which the barking had come he did not find
any ranch. The first faint glimmer of gray dawn had begun to lighten the
sky when he reached the watershed of Piceance.

It had been seventeen hours since he had tasted water and that had been
as a chaser after a large drink of whiskey. He was thirsty, and he
hastened his pace to reach the creek. Moving down the slope, he pulled up
abruptly. He had run into a cavvy grazing on the hill.

A thick growth of pine and pinon ran up to the ridge above. Back of a
scrub evergreen Houck dropped to consider a plan of action. He meant to
get one of these horses, and to do this he must have it and be gone
before dawn. This was probably some round-up. If he could drift around
close to the camp and find a saddle, there would likely be a rope
attached to it. He might, of course, be seen, but he would have to take a
chance on that.

Chance befriended him to his undoing. As he crept through the brush
something caught his ankle and he