ed with outstretched hand.

"I may be about here for a few days and we might as well get acquainted,
eh? I'll promise to lay off the questions."

"I'm Logan."

"Glad to know you, Mr. Logan."

"Same t'you. Don't happen to have no fine-cut about you?"

"No. Sorry."

"So'm I. Ran out an' now all I've got is plug. Kind of hard on the teeth
an' full of molasses."

"I've some pipe tobacco, though, which might do."

He produced a pouch which Logan opened, taking from it a generous pinch.

"Looks kind of like fine-cut--smells kind of like the real thing"--here
he removed the quid from his mouth and introduced the great pinch of
tobacco--"an' I'll be damned if it don't taste a pile the same!"

The misty eyes centred upon Bard and a light grew up in them.

"Maybe you'd put a price on this tobacco, stranger?"

"It's yours," said Bard, "to help you forget all the questions I've
asked."

The shepherd acted at once lest the other might change his mind, dumping
the contents of the pouch into the breast pocket of his shirt. Afterward
his gaze sought the dim summits of the Little Brothers, and a sad, great
resolution grew up and hardened the lines of his sallow face.

"You can camp with me if you want--partner."

A cough, hastily summoned, covered Bard's smile.

"Thanks awfully, but I'm used to camping alone--and rather like it that
way."

"Which I'd say, the same goes here," responded the shepherd with
infinite relief, "I ain't got much use for company--away from a bar. But
I could show you a pretty neat spot for a camp, over there by the
river."

"Thanks, but I'll explore for myself."

He swung again into the saddle and trotted whistling down the slope
toward the creek which Logan had pointed out. But once fairly out of
sight in the second-growth forest, he veered sharply to the right,
touched his tough cattle-pony with the spurs, and headed at a racing
pace straight for the old ruined house.

Even from a distance the house appeared unmistakably done for, but not
until he came close at hand could Bard appreciate the full extent of the
ruin. Every individual board appeared to be rotting and crumbling toward
the ground, awaiting the shake of one fierce gust of wind to disappear
in a cloud of mouldy dust. He left his horse with the reins hanging over
its head behind the house and entered by the back door. One step past
the threshold brought him misadventure, for his foot drove straight
through the rotten floorin