d of any whitefaced coyote like us." And
bringing forth his pipe, Pete filled it from the beaded tobacco pouch
which hung on his breast, and by means of a horn of punk, a flint and
steel, he soon had the pipe aglow and was puffing away as calmly as if
nothing unusual had occurred. Presently he exclaimed, "Gol durn his
daguerrotype, what good did it do him to throw that sheep down the
gulch? Reckon Le-loo and me could find a better grave for mutton chops
than that canyon bottom. The mountains didn't need the sheep an' we did.
But, I reckon it was his own sheep you killed, 'cause it had a porcupine
collar same pattern as the trimmings of his shirt."

Turning his great blue eyes full upon me, he suddenly shot this inquiry,
"Be he bar, ecutock or werwolf?"

"He is the finest adjusted, easiest running, most exquisitely balanced,
highest geared bit of human machinery I ever saw," I answered
enthusiastically.

"Wall, maybe ye are right, Le-loo, an' maybe ye hain't; which is
catamount to saying, maybe it is a man and maybe it tain't."

"Steady, Pete, old fellow, let us go slow; now tell me at what you're
driving?" I pleaded.

"It looks to me this hea'-a-way," he explained. "I've seed his trail
onct or twice, an' I've seed him onct, but I never yet seed his trail
and the Wild Hunter's trail at the same time and place. 'Pears to me
that a man who, when it's convenient, kin make a wolf of hisself, might
likewise make a boy of hisself whenever he felt that way. Never heared
tell on enny real laid who cud climb like a squtton and shoot a bow
better nor a Robin Hood or Injun, and that's howsomever!"

"Well, it does look 'howsomever,' and no mistake," I admitted, "and what
makes it worse, our dinner is at the bottom of this infernal gulch.
Come, let us be moving; the breeze from the snowfields chills me. Let us
hit his trail now while it is fresh."

This was a simple proposition to make, but a difficult one to carry into
execution; for to all appearances that trail began upon the other side
of the chasm, and there was no bridge in sight by which we could cross.
Big Pete carefully put a cork-stopper in his pipe, extinguishing the
fire without wasting the unconsumed contents; he then carefully put his
briarwood away and began to uncoil a lariat from around his middle. As
he loosened the braided rawhide from his waist his gaze was roaming over
the opposite rocks. Presently he fixed his attention upon a pinnacle
which reared its c