f a voice, Big Jim whirled around, facing the
direction whence the voice came, to be met by the dog's fierce charge.
Guard's leap was so impetuous that the man staggered under it, and,
losing his balance, fell to the floor. Guard fastened his teeth in the
skirt of his coat as he fell. There was a momentary struggle on
the floor. While it was taking place I darted out of the cavern,
revolver, cartridge-belt, and even the empty whiskey bottle in my
hands. Safely outside, I halted, and with what little breath I had
left whistled for Guard. A load was off my heart when the dog came
bounding to my side, none the worse for his brief encounter with an
unarmed cowboy.

I had hoped to get out of sight before Big Jim discovered me, but he
came out of the cavern on Guard's heels. Evidently quite sobered, he
stopped when he saw me. He glanced at the armament in my hands, at
the empty bottle, and, lifting his hat with its great flapping brim,
scratched his head in perplexity. It was still raining, a fact which
Big Jim seemed suddenly to discover.

"Wet, ain't it?" he observed.

"Rain is usually wet," I informed him, with unnecessary explicitness.

"Yes, I reckon 'tis. Say, that's my bottle you've got in your hands."

"So I supposed."

"You're welcome to the whiskey--I see it's gone, and 'tis a good thing
to take off a chill--when a body gets wet--but I'd like the bottle
again."

"I am going to put the bottle and the revolver and the belt in the
hollow of the big pine near the lower crossing. You can get them
there."

"Oh, ain't you goin' t' give 'em to me now?"

"No, I am not."

"'Fraid of me, I reckon."

"Yes, I am."

"I won't hurt you, Miss Leslie Gordon. I remember you first-rate. Got
that little white handkercher that you done up my hand in the day I
burned it so at the Alton camp yet."

"You might not hurt me, but I think you would hurt my dog."

"Yes, Miss Gordon, I'm 'bleeged t' say that if I had a shootin' iron
in my hands jest now I'd be mighty glad t' let daylight through that
dog o' yourn. He's too fractious t' live in the same country as a
white man."

I grasped the revolver tighter. "How came you in the cavern?"

"Well, if you want t' know, I took a drop too much at the dance last
night, an' the ole man, he'd said if sech a thing as that ar' took
place again he'd feel obligated t' give me the marble heart. Mighty
cranky the ole man is. So I jest wended up here along, thinkin' I'd
bunk with the ole