mbark on a mission of hazard or roguery without some
feelings of trepidation. And Hervey was no exception to the rule. He
experienced a feeling of pleasurable excitement and anticipation.
There was sufficient uncertainty in his mission to make him think hard
and review his powers of attack with great regard for detail. There
must be no loophole of escape for his victim.

On the whole he was well satisfied. But he was not unprepared for
failure. During his acquaintance with Iredale he had learned that the
master of Lonely Ranch was not easily trifled with, neither was he the
man to accept a tight situation without making a hot fight for it. It
was just these things which gave Hervey the gentle qualms of
excitement as he meditated upon the object of his journey. He thought
of the large sums of money he had borrowed from this man, and the ease
with which they had been obtained. He remembered the kindly ways and
gentle manner of this reserved man, and somehow he could not get away
from the thought of the velvet glove.

But even as he thought of it he laughed. There was no getting away
from the facts he possessed, and if it came to anything in the shape
of physical resistance, well, he was not unprepared. There was a
comfortable feeling about the heavy jolt of the six-chambered "lawyer"
in his pocket.

The valley seemed much more lonely than usual. The horrid screeching
of the watchful sentries would almost have been welcome to him. The
forest was so dark and still. Even the falling raindrops and the deep
rolling thunder had no power to give the place any suggestion of life.
There was a mournful tone over everything that caused the rider to
glance about him furtively, and wish for a gleam of the prairie
sunlight.

At length he drew up at the house. There was no one about. A few
cattle were calmly reposing in the corrals. There was not even the
sharp bark of a dog to announce his arrival. As Hervey drew up he
looked to see Iredale come to the door, for he knew the rancher had
returned from his wanderings; but the front door remained shut, and,
although the window of the sitting-room was wide open, there was no
sign of any occupant within the room. He dismounted and stood thinking
for a moment. Then he raised his voice and called to Chintz.

His summons was repeated before the man's ferret face appeared round a
corner of the building. The little fellow advanced with no show of
alacrity. Iredale had told him nothing about