ves, and then I went on home. My wife, she
had supper all ready, and I sot down and et it. I told her I was going
to start right off, as soon as I'd done eating, for town. She kind o'
objected to my going then; said she'd been wanting to go herself, to
help you folks when it come to proving up. That made me some mad, for
I wan't figuring on helping you then. But all the time that I was
eating supper, and all the time that she was talking, I kept thinking:
'S'pos'n some one should come along past that shack, look in there,
and see that book lying there?' I felt that I'd ought to 'a' covered
it up with leaves"--"and Robin Redbreast painfully did cover them with
leaves," ran the silent under-current of my thought, while I listened
gravely to Mr. Horton's elucidation of the mystery of the book. "I
felt it so strong that nothing would suit me, at last, but I must make
my way back there and cover it before I started for town. So, while my
wife thought, after I'd mounted again, that I was riding toward town,
I was sneaking back up the canyon. I tied my horse near the break in
the wall, and went to the shack on foot, this time. It was as dark as
a stack of black cats inside the shack. I couldn't see a thing--I
stooped down, and was feeling 'round 'mong the leaves for the book,
when I run up ag'in' a surprise." Mr. Horton dropped the branch, now
denuded of its needles, and stared thoughtfully at the bruise on his
hand. "That dog--he wan't dead, as it turned out; he hadn't even gone
back, or gone before. He was all there and ready for business--I had
time to study the thing out whilst I was a lyin' on my back, last
night, starin' up into his eyes that was glarin' down into mine,
through a chink in the logs--and I figured it out that he'd follered
me, quiet, after I'd mounted; then, when I threw the book into the
shack, he'd gone in there and stayed with it. He knew that it belonged
to his folks, and he meant to guard it. He did, too. As I was stoopin'
down, feeling 'round, something gave a yell, all at once, that made my
hair stan' up, stiff and spiky, all over my head, and, next thing,
something--some animal--sprung at me with such force that I reeled and
fell back ag'in' the side of the shack, and then--the shack it fell,
too. I do' know's I fainted!" Mr. Horton continued, reflectively; "I
never have lost conscientiousness as I know of, but there was quite a
spell that I didn't realize where I was, nor what had happened. When I