uld actually catch what was being said.

Peg was talking at the time, and grumbling after his usual manner about
something or other.

"Ten to one the fellow's gone and deserted us, Nick!" he remarked,
suspicion in every word.

Apparently the lounging cowboy did not share in his opinion, for he
laughed in a careless way as he drawled out:

"Oh! I reckon not, Peg. Me and Joe has hit up the pace fur some years
in company, and I knows him too well to b'lieve he'd break loose from a
soft snap like this here one. Jest lie low, an' he'll be back. Let's
hope Joe's found out somethin' wuth knowin'."

"But he's been gone nearly an hour now," complained Peg.

"What of that? It ain't the easiest thing gettin' around on this rocky
ole mounting in the pitch dark, let me tell ye, Peg," Nick remarked;
and by the way he seemed to puff between each few words, Bob understood
that it must be Nick who was using the cigarette, and not Spanish Joe.

"Say, that's so," admitted Peg, as if a new idea had come to him.
"Perhaps he's slipped, and fallen down into one of those holes you
showed me when we were coming up!"

This also amused the cowboy, for he chuckled again.

"Too easy an end for Spanish Joe," he said, carelessly. "Born fur the
rope, and he can't cheat his fate. Same thing's been said 'bout me.
Don't bother me none, though, and sometimes it's a real comfort;
'specially when a landslide carries ye down the side of a mounting like
a railroad train, like I had happen to me. Nawthin' ain't agoin' to
hurt ye if so be yer end's got to come by the rope."

"A landslide! Do they often have that sort of thing out here?" asked
Peg, showing some anxiety, as though he had read about such terrible
happenings, and did not care to make a close acquaintance with one.

"Sure we does, every little while," remarked Nick, cheerfully. "Why,
jest last year the hull side of a peak 'bout forty mile north of here
broke away, and a Injun village was wiped out. Never did hear anything
from a single critter after that slip bore down on 'em."

"It might happen here on Thunder Mountain, too, couldn't it, Nick?"
pursued Peg, as if the subject, with all it pictured to his active
mind, held his interest gripped in such a fashion that he could not
shake himself free.

"Easiest thing goin', Peg. And let me tell ye, if it ever do happen
here, thar's agoin' to be a slide to beat the band!" Nick asserted,
positively.

"But what makes you say th