ng too close to identifying the master hand?"

The lawyer nodded. "It is well understood that Dawson is merely a part
of Garvin. That makes it unwise to give him great prominence. If he has
been called back it means something."

"And you think that something is--?" Weighborne left the question
unfinished.

"I think that when the buzzards come there is apt to be carrion." The
thin, close lips of the attorney closed tightly.

"I have always understood that this man is to be my executioner some
day. Maybe the time is closer at hand than I anticipated."

"Is this fellow totally illiterate or has he, like Garvin, a shrewd
knowledge of things?" I inquired.

"He has had only scant and primary schooling, but he has learned a great
deal that is not in books. He has seen the outer world as a railroad
brakeman and when still a boy went to the Klondike.... Let me impress
this on you both. At any time you see him don't fail to tell me at once
the full particulars ... I had supposed him to be in Virginia. If he's
here now he will bear some watching."

The two hours between early supper and early bedtime dragged along
tediously. The old woman sat dozing and nodding while two of the
retainers sang to the accompaniment of the cottage organ, strange songs,
half-folk lore, in weird, nasal voices that rose high and shrill. This
singing was without musical effect, for the mountaineer alters his voice
in song and unconsciously adopts the tradition of the Chinese stage,
achieving a thin falsetto. It was a relief when the men climbed their
ladder and our host bade us good-night.

Early morning found me awake, but already someone had hospitably kindled
our fire, and when we went out on to the porch, where a tin basin and
gourd dipper supplied the only bathing facilities, a small tow-headed
boy was there before us with hot, water in a saucepan. The mountaineer
is averse to cold water and sparing with hot. It was presumed that we
shared this prejudice.

Frost still hung thick on the stubble and the mists lingered in the
valleys when we climbed into our saddles and trailed out to inspect one
of the tracts in which we were interested.

I was not a happy man nor one bearing a blithe spirit, for my own
discoveries crowded too closely and heavily on my heart, to be lightened
by the mere novelty of fresh surroundings. Yet even in my shadowed state
of mind, I could not help drinking in the splendidly unpolluted air with
deep breaths that mad