n it----Hello! what's up? What
in--the name--of--all things!"

CHAPTER XV.

NINIAN'S GREETING

Suddenly, out of the moonlit distance before them, appeared a strange
vision. A horse and his rider, as spotlessly white and gleaming as the
snow on the distant mountaintops, moving toward them as swift as the
wind and in supernatural silence. The eyes of the steed and its master
glowed with a wicked light that startled both the old frontiersman and
the modern scribe, and set Prince and Nimrod into paroxysms of
terror.

Rearing, plunging and backing, Ninian's mount had him soon on the
ground; and though Ephraim stuck to his saddle like a burr; he could
not hold his horse and get at his revolver in that one instant of the
appearance and disappearance of this strange "specter." It was
coming--it was upon them--it was gone; and the blast of cold air with
which it passed them set the horses shivering in an ague of fear, and
tied the men's tongues.

It seemed an age that they halted there in the open solitude, silently
stroking and soothing their frightened beasts, before either could
speak. Then "Forty-niner" found his voice and burst forth, absurdly:

"Drat--that--pocket!"

Ninian laughed; nervously, almost hysterically at first; then with
honest merriment, exclaiming:

"Oh, what a chance was lost there, comrade!"

"Whoa, boy, whoa, I tell you! There, there, steady now. Well, you
needn't throw it in my teeth if it was!" retorted the sharpshooter,
furiously. "Hang new pants!"

Ninian rolled on the ground and laughed afresh; then feebly observed:
"That's what I generally do with mine. But pockets! What of them?"

"Huh! it's all very well for you to lie there and snicker. I lost the
chance of my life that time. What's the use of a repertation for
hittin' a pin at the distance I have if you can't hit a fool when he's
close alongside?"

"Referring to me?" asked the reporter, sweetly.

"Yes, if the coat fits. Drat that pocket!"

"Poor pocket! Who made it?"

"That pesky Sally Benton. The one was in burst right through, and she
sewed this one so tight at the top----Huh! I believe she done it
a-purpose."

"To be sure she did. If I remember correctly that estimable woman was
opposed to bloodshed and preferred corporal punishment. I suppose she
feared you might do what you attempted to do and----"

"Shut up your shallow talk, young man!" ordered Ephraim, with so much
venom that the other realized his mirth wa