. . .

On the ranch the darkness was intense and no sounds save the natural
noises of the night could be heard. The sky was overcast with clouds and
occasionally a drop of rain fell. The haunting wail of a distant coyote
quavered down the wind and the cattle in the corral were restless and
uneasy. A mounted man suddenly topped a rise at a walk and then stopped
to stare at the dim lights in the windows of the houses nearly a mile
away. He laughed softly at the foolishness of the inmates trying to
plot for _his_ death by doing something they had not dared to do for a
week. Who would be so foolish as to ride up to those lighted windows
unless he was a tenderfoot?

Leaping lightly to the grass, he hobbled his horse and then took a bundle
from his saddle, which he strapped on his back and then went quietly
forward on foot, peering intently into the darkness before him. Soon he
dropped to his hands and knees and crawled cautiously and without a
sound. After covering several hundred yards in this manner he dropped
to his stomach and wriggled forward, his eyes strained for dangers. A
quarter of an hour elapsed, and then he heard a sneeze, muffled and
indistinct, but still a sneeze. Avoiding the place from whence it came, he
made a wide detour and finally stopped, chuckling silently. Untying
the bundle he removed it from his back and placed it upon a pile of
sand, which he heaped up for the purpose, and, printing his name in the
sand at its base, retreated as he had come and without mishap. After
searching for a quarter of an hour for his horse he finally found it,
removed the hobbles and vaulted to the saddle. Wheeling, he rode off at
a walk, soon changing to a canter, in the direction of the Limping
Water. When he had gained it he chanced the danger of quicksands and rode
north along the middle of the stream. If he was to be followed, the
probability was that his pursuers would ride south to find where he had
left the water; and they must be delayed as long as possible.

An hour later daylight swiftly developed and a peculiarly shaped pile
of sand quaked and split asunder as a man arose from it. He shook himself
and spent some time in digging the sand from his pockets and boots and
in cleaning his rifle of it. Then he walked wearily toward the bunk-house,
whose occupants were still lost in the sleep of the exhausted. It was very
tedious to stay awake all night peering at the lights in the distant
windows; and i