and mouths beginning to gape, with ears flattened and
streaming flanks, reached the bottom, the desperate nature of the
journey became even more apparent. There was neither wavering nor
mercy in the eyes of the teamster and his escort as they pressed on
down the valley.

One of the escort called sharply to the teamster.

"Can we make it?" he shouted.

"Got to," came back the answer through clenched jaws. "If we got
twenty minutes on the gorl darned p'lice they won't see us for dust.
Heh!"

The man's final exclamation came as one of his horses stumbled. But he
kept the straining beast on its legs by the sheer physical strength of
his hands upon the reins. The check was barely an instant, but he
picked up the rawhide whip lying in the wagon and plied it
mercilessly.

The exhausted beasts responded and the vehicle flew down the trail,
swaying and yawing the whole breadth of the road. The dust in its wake
rose up in a dense cloud. Into this the escort plunged and quickly
became lost to view behind the bush which lined the sharply twisting
trail.

Faster and faster the horses sped under the iron hand of the teamster,
till distance took hold of the clatter and finally diminished it to a
rumble. In a few minutes even the rising cloud of dust, like smoke
above the tree tops, thinned and finally melted away, and so, once
more, peace returned to the twilit valley.

* * * * *

A wagon was lumbering slowly toward Rocky Springs. It was less than a
mile beyond the outskirts of the village, and already an occasional
flash of white paint through the trees revealed the sides of some
outlying house in the distance ahead.

The horses were dejected-looking creatures, and their flanks were
streaked with gray lines of caking sweat. They were walking, and the
teamster on the wagon sat huddled down in the driving seat, an
exquisite picture of unclean ease.

He was a hard-faced, unwashed creature, whose swarthy features were
ingrained with sweat and dirt. He was clad in typical prairie costume,
his loose cotton shirt well matching the unclean condition of his
face. One cheek was bulging with a big chew of tobacco, while the
other sank in over the hollows left by absent back teeth.

He certainly was unprepossessing. Even his contented smile only added
to the evil of his expression. His contentment, however, was by no
means his whole atmosphere. In fact, it was rather studied, for his
eyes were aligh