scabbards and Douglass smiled almost
affectionately in the direction of their owner. When Red "packed" that
extra gun he was enlisted for the whole war.

He went over and looked down kindly upon the stalwart sleeper. In the
relaxation of sleep the stern face was gentle and almost handsome. Was
he justified in taking this comely young fellow into the grim
uncertainty that lay ahead, into the jaws of the specter grinning
waitingly behind the red lights of Bart Coogan's gambling hell at
Gunnison? As he hesitatingly debated the question in his mind, Red
turned slightly and mumbled in his sleep: "All right, honey--for yuah
sake--"

Douglass, stepping back involuntarily, laid his hand upon the breast of
the shirt hanging under the guns; it encountered something round in the
flannel pocket, and instantly his face hardened. He went over to his own
bunk and laid down.

"You've got to sit in the game, Red, for her sake. We are in the same
boat and we've got to take our medicine. I wonder if she told old Abbie
about that ribbon, too. Well, maybe we'll give her something more to
laugh at before we are through." Then youth and healthful fatigue
asserted itself and he rolled over and went to sleep.

CHAPTER XI

FRENZIED FINANCE

Outside of a fixed determination to compel the restoration of the stolen
cattle, Douglass had no specific plans in mind as they rode away in the
gray dawn. His actions would be determined by the conditions that would
confront him at Gunnison, and he left much to what he deemed his luck,
but which in reality was rather his great capability and aptitude in
moments of crisis.

Of course, he would incidentally kill Matlock if justifying
circumstances permitted, but he was not a killer in cold blood and the
provocation would have to be amply sufficient. He resolved to let
Matlock make the first hostile demonstration, after which matters were a
thing of evolution purely; of the ultimate result he had not the
slightest apprehension.

Every fiber of him was tingling with resentment of what he deemed
Grace's duplicity; she had begged for his friendship and then had
maliciously exposed him to ridicule by showing that foolish poem to
Abbie, and the Lord only knew who else besides. She had made of him a
laughing stock of the whole community, a butt for the coarse witticisms
of his fellows, and the deeply-driven barb in his vanity rankled sore.
Of course, he opined, she had only been making a fool of R