the man now, and stepped
aside to cover him as young Henry approached. But there was no need of
that. The boy was swift and noiseless; before the outlaw could wake or
move, his gun was in Henry's hand, and he heard the command, "hands up!"

The sentry was quick-witted. He couldn't shoot, but he could yell.
Brunner, however was ready for that. He began to bawl a reveler's song,
popular with cowboys on a spree, and old man Thomas joined him. From
above, it sounded as if a drunken riot had broken out, in which the
outpost's warning shout became only a meaningless discord. The babel
brought the four sleeping men out of their blankets. They listened a
moment, then stepped out in view of the posse in the briars.

As Brunner came up, old man Thomas turned to face him. On his seamed
face the sweat had almost dried, but when he shoved his hat up with his
forearm, his sleeve came away from his forehead damp. The compelling
glitter in the gray eyes turned to a challenging stare. Brunner met it,
then glanced up the trail towards young Thomas and his captive.

"He got him all right," said Brunner.

"Yes," the old man triumphed, "my boy got him. He captured 'Kep' Queen
himself."

"I reckon you've heard young Henry's story of how he got 'Kep' Queen,"
Brunner finished. "If you've ever talked with him when he was out of
sight of the old man, I know you have. What I've told you to-night is
what old man Henry could tell if he wanted to. But he never will. As I
said awhile ago, 'young Henry swells around and talks big; the old man
he says nothing and chaws tobacco.'"

EDITORIAL

THE TRUTH OF ORCHARD'S STORY

McClure's Magazine printed during last summer and fall the Autobiography
of Harry Orchard, with its confessions of wholesale assassinations
during the labor war in the mining districts of the West. There was, at
that time, repeated and angry denial of the truth of his story; and,
since the acquittal of W. D. Haywood, secretary and treasurer of the
Western Federation of Miners, and of George A. Pettibone, whom Orchard
charged with being the instigators of his crimes, their adherents have,
of course, maintained that Orchard's story has been entirely disproved.

Logically, this does not follow. The acquittal of these two men means
nothing more than that they were not proved guilty to the satisfaction
of the juries trying them. Before a final judgment as to the truth or
falsity of Orchard's statement is made, the last dev