m, but he felt that he must
take it with him when he left the tent. Big and clumsy as it was, he
thrust it under the belt which sustained his trousers, where it promised
to carry very well, although it was not in a free-moving state in case
an emergency should demand its speedy use.

There would be no time for breakfast. Even then he should have been in
Comanche, he told himself with upbraidings for having slept so long. His
horse had strayed, too. Slavens went after it in resentful mood. The
creature had followed the scant grazing to the second bench, an
elevation considerably above its present site.

Slavens followed the horse's trail, wondering how the animal had been
able to scramble up those slopes, hobbled as it was. Presently he found
the beast and started with it back to camp. Rounding the base of a great
stone which stood perched on the hillside as if meditating a tumble,
Slavens paused a moment to look over the troubled slope of land which
had been his two days before.

There was Boyle's tent, with a fire before it, but no one in sight; and
there, on the land which adjoined his former claim on the south, was
another tent, so placed among the rocks that it could not be seen from
his own.

"It wasn't there when I left," Slavens reflected. "I wonder what he's
after?"

CHAPTER XIX

CROOK MEETS CROOK

Slavens was saddling his horse before his tent, his mind still running
on the newcomer who had pitched to the south of him, evidently while he
was away. He was certain that he would have seen the tent if it had been
there before he left, for it was within plain view of the road.

Well, thought the doctor, whoever the stranger was, whatever he hoped or
expected of that place, he was welcome to, for all that Slavens envied
him. As for Slavens himself, he had run his race and won it by a nose;
and now that he was putting down the proceeds to appease what he held as
blackmail, he had no very keen regrets for what he was losing. He had
passed through that. There would be the compensation----

But of that no matter; that must come in its time and place, and if
never, no matter. He would have the ease of conscience in knowing that
he had served her, and served her well.

His horse was restive and frisky in the cool of the morning, making a
stir among the stones with its feet. Slavens spoke sharply to the
animal, bending to draw up the girth, the stirrup thrown across the
saddle.

"Now, you old scamp, I