to be ashamed of. I took a look at
all the guns and wiped them up. I locked and bolted everything except
the doors or windows which led into the tunnels. There wasn't anything
more I could do except wait and try to keep that crazy heart of mine a
little quiet.

I knew that whenever or however they came they would be most likely to
come in on the grade, so I thought the best place to wait was in
Townsend's store, as they would have to come up facing the back of it.
The windows were planked up; but I knew that there were no windows in
town, or even sides of houses, either, which would stop a bullet from
a good rifle. I calculated if they came in the night it would probably
be about one or two o'clock, and if they waited till morning I could
look for them when it began to get light.

I went over to Townsend's early in the evening and sat down close to a
back window in the second story. I had Kaiser with me. I think he was
gradually getting the thing through his head, because he had stopped
wagging his tail and begun to growl once in a while. I thought I could
trust him to hear any sound for three or four hours, and I tried to
sleep, but I couldn't. Every few minutes I went up a short ladder and
put my head out the scuttle in the roof to look and listen. I heard a
good deal, but except for the wolves away off it was all in my ears.
About midnight by the stars I went to sleep in my chair before I knew
it.

When I woke up I gave a great jump. It seemed as if I had been asleep
a week; and it certainly had been several hours. Kaiser was sitting on
the floor beside my chair. I knelt down and threw my arms around his
neck and gave him such a prodigious hug that it must have hurt him.
"We will do the best we can!" I said to him.

From the roof I could see a faint light in the east. The wind was
fresher from the northwest and it was drifting a little; this was
good. I scolded myself for having slept so long. I knew if they had
come that I should not have been ready for them.

I hurried around and fixed the fires. I drank a cup of coffee at the
hotel, but couldn't eat anything. I think if I had had outlaws every
day that my keep wouldn't have cost Sours very much. I was back at
Townsend's in a jiffy. It was getting red in the east now, and the
moon, which had shone all night, was about down. It was light enough
so I could see pretty well by this time; but I heard the crunching of
the crust by the horses' feet before I could se