a half-witted giant.

This place was a kind of indentation in the side of a precipitous butte,
above which the cliff (if it may be so called) arched over part way like a
canopy. The floor was of rock and lower than the plain, but over it were
scattered huge blocks of stone that had fallen from above. Other stones
had, in the course of time, made a sort of breastwork about this level
flooring so that the retreat was both a refuge and a defense.

Better even than its construction was its situation. This particular spot
was a corner of real "bad lands," and lumpy ridges, hogbacks, and barren
buttes arose on all sides like waves in a sea. So numerous were they that
unless riders passed directly by the sheepmen's hiding place the chances
of discovery were almost nil. At one spot only was it visible, and that
was a place where the edges of two hogbacks failed to lap and hide it.

The sheepmen were aware of this, and their two guards were placed out of
range of that single opening. The distance to it was almost half a mile.

The game of poker went on. Billy Speaker sat with his back to this
opening, and after a while, in the natural progress of things, the sun
crept over the top of the rock and smote him. It was a hot sun, although
it was declining, and presently Billy gave warning that he was about to
take off his coat.

When he did so without an alarming display of hidden weapons, the fancy
suspenders he wore came in for considerable attention. Now cowmen or
cowboys almost never wore braces; either their trousers were tight enough
at the waist to stay up, or they wore a leather strap to hold them.
Suspenders hampered an active man.

But Billy Speaker, who had originally come from Connecticut fifteen years
ago, wore these braces and treasured them because his mother had given
much light from her aging eyes and many stitches from her faltering needle
to the embroidery that traveled up and down both shoulder straps. She had
embroidered everything he could wear time and again, and at last had
fallen back on the braces as something new.

After free and highly critical comment regarding this particular aid to
propriety, the game was permitted to go on. It happened to be Billy
Speaker's lucky day, and he had nearly cleaned the entire six of all their
money and part of their outfits. In the exhilaration of raking in his
gains he moved about really lively, forgetful of the brilliantly polished
nickel-plated buckles that decora