tle man. "An' as fer
that kid, I'd sure 'a' kep' him with us. Who's to say he ain't handed
us a fool game? He's a crank, anyways, an' orter be looked after by
State. He guessed he see the rustlers at work, but didn't rec'nize
'em. I said right then he was bluffin'. D'you think he wouldn't know
Jim Thorpe?"

"Barkin' that yet, eh!" retorted Doc, sharply. "Say, boy," he went on
with a great contempt, "you're dirty. Jim Thorpe ain't the man we're
after. Leastways I won't believe it till we git him red-handed. I
wouldn't be out to-night if I thought it was Jim Thorpe. We left him
back ther' in the village. He's been out two days chasin' for
rustlers. See here, you're mean on him 'bout this thing, because
things are queer his way. An' you ain't got savvee to see that it's
'cos things is queer his way is just the reason he ain't the dogone
rustler we're chasin'. You need to think a sight more. Mebbe it hurts
some, but it's a heap good."

Smallbones shot a swift, sidelong glance at the doctor, in which there
was little enough friendliness. He probably had no friendliness for
anybody.

"I'll hand you a noo buggy to a three-year-old driver he's our man,"
he snapped.

"Done," grinned the sporting doctor promptly. And Smallbones was the
least bit sorry he had laid so generous odds.

By this time day was in its full early-morning glory, but they were
passing from the dazzling light of the plains into the more sheltered
atmosphere of the valley. Everywhere the hills rose about them, on
either side and ahead. The gloomy woods on the vast slopes threw a
marked shadow over the prospect. Ahead lay a wide vista of tremendous
mountains, with their crowning, snow-bound peaks lost in a world of
gray, fleecy cloud. In the heart of one distant rift lay the steely
bed of a glacier, hoary with age and immovable as the very bedrocks of
the mountains themselves. It sloped away into the distance, and lost
itself in the heart of a mighty canyon. Even to these men on their
trail of death, living, as they did, so adjacent to these mysterious
wilds, the scene was not without its awe.

The doctor was watching the hills to the left. The first one seemed
endless, and he sought a break in it in every shadowed indentation
upon its face. He was feeling more anxious than his own words
suggested. He was a shrewd man who had understood the ring of truth in
Elia's story at once, but now, in face of this stupendous world, he
was wondering if he had been