dge, hastily, lifting himself on
his elbow.

The Doctor stopped instantly. "Juan," he said coolly, to one of the
Mexican packers, "quit foolin' with that riata. You'll have that stake
out and that mule loose in another minute. Come over this way!"

The Mexican turned a scared, white face to the Doctor, muttering
something, and let go the deer-skin hide. We all up-raised our voices
with one accord, the Judge most penitently and apologetically, and
implored the Doctor to go on. "I'll shoot the first man who interrupts
you again," added Thornton; persuasively.

But the Doctor, with his hands languidly under his head, had lost his
interest. "Well, the dog ran off to the hills, and neither the threats
nor cajoleries of his master could ever make him enter the cabin again.
The next day the man left the camp. What time is it? Getting on to
sundown, ain't it? Keep off my leg, will you, you d--d Greaser, and
stop stumbling round there! Lie down."

But we knew that the Doctor had not completely finished his story, and
we waited patiently for the conclusion. Meanwhile the old, gray
silence of the woods again asserted itself, but shadows were now
beginning to gather in the heavy beams of the roof above, and the dim
aisles seemed to be narrowing and closing in around us. Presently the
Doctor recommenced lazily, as if no interruption had occurred.

"As I said before, I never put much faith in that story, and shouldn't
have told it, but for a rather curious experience of my own. It was in
the spring of '62, and I was one of a party of four, coming up from
O'Neill's, when we had been snowed up. It was awful weather; the snow
had changed to sleet and rain after we crossed the divide, and the
water was out everywhere; every ditch was a creek, every creek a river.
We had lost two horses on the North Fork, we were dead beat, off the
trail, and sloshing round, with night coming on, and the level hail
like shot in our faces. Things were looking bleak and scary when,
riding a little ahead of the party, I saw a light twinkling in a hollow
beyond. My horse was still fresh, and calling out to the boys to
follow me and bear for the light, I struck out for it. In another
moment I was before a little cabin that half burrowed in the black
chapparal; I dismounted and rapped at the door. There was no response.
I then tried to force the door, but it was fastened securely from
within. I was all the more surprised when one of the boys