lains was too familiar to him to
excite interest. To him there were simply miles intervening between
him and the slumbers he was seeking. The prairie, for all its
beauties, spelt toilful days and bitter disappointment for him.
Wherein then should be discovered its charms?

Again his mind settled itself upon the events of the evening. Price?
Price? Every man, he had been told, had his price. Every man and
woman. He uttered a sound. It might have been a laugh, but it lacked
mirth. It startled his alert horse. It almost seemed to startle the
quiet night itself. What was his price? All he knew about price was
its payment. He had only been called upon to pay. And he had paid!
My God, he had paid! All that had been his. All the wealth, the
comfort, the luxury and prospects which had been his in his wealthy
father's home, had been the price he had paid for the right, which was
the right of every man, to choose for himself, and to take to himself
and to wife, the woman who seemed to him to be the one creature in the
world who could yield him the happiness which alone was worth while.

This talk of a man's price only enraged him the more. He viciously
detested Ju Penrose, and all such creatures who walked the world.

Well, the reward was out. Time would show. If it failed to find the
Judas he would remind Ju. Oh, yes, he would remind him. He would wait
his time for the reminder. He would wait till the saloon was full, and
then--then he would open out his batteries. Men were of----

What was that?

He had pulled his horse up with a swift tightening of his hand. Now
the beast stood with head erect, and pricked ears firmly thrust
forward. Its head was turned southward, and the gush of its distended
nostrils warned its rider that his question was shared by a creature
whose instincts were even more acute, here, on the prairie, than those
of its human master.

Bob bent down in the saddle the better to obtain the silhouette of the
sky-line. The sound which had held him came up on the southern night
breeze. It was a low murmur, or rumble, and, to his accustomed ears,
it suggested the speeding of hoofs over the green clad earth. He
waited for many moments, but the sound only increased. There was no
doubt left in his mind now. None at all.

He sat up again and glanced swiftly about him. The moonlight had
increased, and a silver sheen threw up the surrounding scene into
indistinct relief. Beyond, to h