to reach out for distance at every stride.

"You'd have made one good little horse, Blue," he said, "if some sport
hadn't spoiled you on the start."

"Don't speak loud or the blue horse might shy and spill his pack,"
Morrow remarked in a tone loud enough for Harris to overhear. Evans
turned in his saddle and eyed the dark man curiously.

"He won't upset his load to-day," he prophesied. "Harris is just past
the colt stage, round twenty-seven or eight somewheres, and has
out-growed his longing to show off. But he'll be able to sit up in the
middle of anything that starts to move out from under him."

They left the horses drooping at the several hitch rails before the
post and crowded in. A few paused along the counters of merchandise
that flanked the left side of the big room while the rest headed
straight for the long bar that extended the full length of the opposite
side. The Three Bar men had scarcely tossed off their first drink
before there sounded a clatter of hoofs outside and twelve men from the
Halfmoon D trooped in.

"Out of the way!" the foremost youth shouted. "Back off from the pine
slab, you Three Bar soaks, and give parched folks a chance. Two hours'
play and six months' work--so don't delay me."

The throng before the bar was a riot of color; Angora chaps ranging
from orange and lavender to black and silky white; smooth leather
chaps, and stamped, silver-ornamented and plain, with here and there an
individual design, showing that the owner had selected some queerly
spotted steer and tanned the pelt with the hair on to be fashioned into
gaudy vest and pants. 'Twas an improvident, carefree lot who lived
to-day with scarce a thought for to-morrow. The clatter of sardine and
salmon cans mingled with the clink of glassware at the bar as the men
who had missed the noon meal lunched out of cans between drinks.

Some few detached themselves from the group and occupied themselves
with writing. Several started a game of stud poker at one of the many
tables. Harris wrote a few letters before joining in the play, and as
he looked up from time to time he caught many curious glances leveled
upon him. Morrow had been busily spreading the tidings that a would-be
squatter was among them and they were curious to see the man who had
deliberately defied the unwritten law of the Coldriver Range. When he
had finished his writing he crossed over to the group, tossed a bill on
the bar and waved all hands to a