"As a matter of fact, I'm laying off men just now; you see the rush is
pretty well over with."

Harold went over to the Great Western Hotel and hung about the barroom,
hoping to meet some one he knew, even though there was a certain risk of
being recognized as Black Mose. Swarms of cattlemen filled the hotel,
but they were mainly from Texas and Oklahoma, and no familiar face met
his searching eyes. He was now so desperately homesick that he meditated
striking one of these prosperous-looking fellows for a pass back to the
cattle country. But each time his pride stood in the way. It would be
necessary to tell his story and yet conceal his name--which was a very
difficult thing to do even if he had had nothing to cover up.

Late in the evening, faint with hunger, he started for his wretched bunk
as a starving wolf returns, after an unsuccessful hunt, to his cold and
cheerless den. His money was again reduced to a few coppers, and for a
week he had allowed himself only a small roll three times a day. "My
God! if I was only among the In-jins," he said savagely; "_they_
wouldn't see a man starve, not while they had a sliver of meat to share
with him; but these Easterners don't care; I'm no more to them than a
snake or a horned toad."

The knowledge that Mary's heart would bleed with sorrow if she knew of
his condition nerved him to make another desperate trial. "I'll try
again to-morrow," he said through his set teeth.

On the way home his curious fatalism took a sudden turn, and a feeling
that Reynolds' letter surely awaited him made his heart glow. It was
impossible that he should actually be without a cent of money, and the
thought filled his brain with an irrational exaltation which made him
forget the slime in which his feet slipped. He planned to start on the
limited train. "I'll go as far from this cursed hole of a city as I
can," he said; "I'll get out where men don't eat each other to keep
alive. He'll certainly send me twenty dollars. The silver on the bridle
is worth that alone. Mebbe he'll understand I'm broke, and send me
fifty."

He became so sure of this at last that he stepped into a saloon and
bought a big glass of brandy to ward off a chill which he felt coming
upon him, and helped himself to a lunch at the counter. When he arose
his limbs felt weak and a singular numbness had spread over his whole
body. He had never been drunk in his life--but he knew the brandy had
produced this effect.

"I shoul