. He
meant to make a wide detour and then work back again to the Double Arrow
range. If the ranch were really deserted, he meant to fire the
buildings, before attempting his escape. Such a revenge would be a
trifle compared to that which he had planned, but it would be better
than nothing, while one more offense would not lengthen his term in jail
any, if he were caught afterward. He felt in his pocket for the whiskey
flask, and swore when he found it missing. He wanted the liquor, but he
wanted the flask more, for its associations; he drew rein and thought of
returning to search for it, but realizing the folly of this, he pressed
on again.

The round-about way he took was necessarily a long one and the ride
entirely sobered him, except for a crawling sensation in his brain, as
though ants were swarming there, which always harassed him after a
debauch. At such times he was more dangerous than when under the first
influence of whiskey. It was close upon noon, and the silvery sagebrush
was shimmering beneath the direct rays of the sun, when he rode his
lathered horse out of a cottonwood grove to gaze, from the edge of a
deep draw, at Wade's ranch buildings. That very morning a gaunt, gray
timber-wolf had peered forth at almost the same point; and despite
Moran's bulk, there was a hint of a weird likeness between man and beast
in the furtive suspicious survey they made of the premises. The wolf had
finally turned back toward the mountains, but Moran advanced. Although
he was reasonably certain that the place was deserted, a degree of
caution, acquired overnight, led him first to assure himself of the
fact. He tied his horse to a fence post and stealthily approached the
house to enter by the back door.

Dorothy was alone in the building, for her mother had gone with the
overly confident Barker to pick blackberries, and the Chinese cook was
temporarily absent. The girl was making a bed, when the door swung open,
and she turned with a bright greeting, thinking that her mother had
returned. When she saw Moran leering at her, the color fled from her
cheeks, in a panic of fright which left her unable to speak or move. She
was looking very pretty and dainty in a cool, fresh gown, which fitted
her neatly, and her sleeves were rolled up over her shapely forearms,
for the task of housekeeping which she had assumed. In her innocent way,
she would have stirred the sentiment in any man, and to the inflamed
brute before her she seemed