vorable moment I examined the
bag. It had not been tampered with, but I noticed a string turning out
through a chink between the logs. I found it came from a thick layer of
straw under my bed, and had been tied to the end of a flatly coiled
lasso. Leaving the thing as it was, I went outside and carelessly
chased the hounds round the cabin. The string stretched along the logs
to another chink, where it returned into the cabin at a point near
where Frank slept. No great power of deduction was necessary to
acquaint me with full details of the plot to spoil my slumbers. So I
patiently awaited developments.

Lawson rode in near sundown with the carcasses of two beasts of some
species hanging over his saddle. It turned out that Jones had planned a
surprise for Wallace and me, and it could hardly have been a more
enjoyable one, considering the time and place. We knew he had a flock
of Persian sheep on the south slope of Buckskin, but had no idea it was
within striking distance of Oak. Lawson had that day hunted up the
shepherd and his sheep, to return to us with two sixty-pound Persian
lambs. We feasted at suppertime on meat which was sweet, juicy, very
tender and of as rare a flavor as that of the Rocky Mountain sheep.

My state after supper was one of huge enjoyment and with intense
interest I awaited Frank's first spar for an opening. It came
presently, in a lull of the conversation.

"Saw a big rattler run under the cabin to-day," he said, as if he were
speaking of one of Old Baldy's shoes. "I tried to get a whack at him,
but he oozed away too quick."

"Shore I seen him often," put in Jim. Good, old, honest Jim, led away
by his trickster comrade! It was very plain. So I was to be frightened
by snakes.

"These old canyon beds are ideal dens for rattle snakes," chimed in my
scientific California friend. "I have found several dens, but did not
molest them as this is a particularly dangerous time of the year to
meddle with the reptiles. Quite likely there's a den under the cabin."

While he made this remarkable statement, he had the grace to hide his
face in a huge puff of smoke. He, too, was in the plot. I waited for
Jones to come out with some ridiculous theory or fact concerning the
particular species of snake, but as he did not speak, I concluded they
had wisely left him out of the secret. After mentally debating a
moment, I decided, as it was a very harmless joke, to help Frank into
the fulfillment of his enjoyment