the dark
beard was not the pallor of fear, so called. Seth Huntington was as
incapable of physical cowardice as he was of moral courage. He was not
afraid of Philip Haig, but he was dreadfully afraid of being thought
afraid of him. There was yet time to avoid a clash with Haig, to
withdraw from an undertaking in which he knew he was wholly in the
wrong. But he was not equal to that test of character. He would sooner
tackle all the Haigs in Christendom than face the derision of his
neighbors, whom he had assiduously taught to expect great things of
him on the first occasion. Here was the occasion; he had seized it,
blinded by passion; and there was no way for him now but to see it
through. He straightened up, and faced the three cow-punchers.

"All right!" he cried defiantly. "It's a thousand."

But the three had heard the name murmured by the crowd, had seen the
distant horseman. Larkin was plainly elated. Raley and Smith, as
plainly abashed, looked this way and that, avoiding the eyes of their
leader, and every other eye as well. Huntington, seeing the game about
to slip from his hands, whirled on his heel and looked swiftly toward
the store.

"Thompson!" he yelled.

"Here!" was the answer, as a small, gray-bearded man in shirt sleeves
advanced a step or two from the door.

"Fetch me that roll from your safe, will you?"

"Right!"

As Thompson disappeared within the store, Huntington turned again
toward the cowboys.

"A thousand dollars--cash!" he repeated.

Larkin leaned forward on his horse, and looked at him shrewdly.

"Seems to me it's not the horse you're after so much as him," he said,
with a grin and a nod toward the road.

"That's as may be," retorted Huntington. "Money talks."

"An' it says mighty funny things sometimes," replied Larkin, who now
made no concealment of his dislike of Huntington and his "game."

"We'll see!" cried Huntington angrily. "How does twelve hundred sound
to you two?"

He looked steadily at Raley and Smith, who exchanged glances.

"What's your awful hurry?" Larkin demanded, in a drawling tone, but
with an anxious eye for the galloping figure now in plain view. "We'll
give Haig a chance to bid--eh, men?"

Smith shot an angry but uneasy look at the leader. Huntington saw it,
and guessed that there was more than weariness and greed in the
willingness of Smith and Raley to combine against Larkin. Probably, he
thought, there had been differences of opinion, disputes even,