y like a man
walking in a dream. Arizona was instantly on his feet.

"You see, boys?" he asked exultantly. "I was right. When you said
Sinclair was waiting up there in the hills, Sandersen was scared. I was
right. He's one of them that Sinclair is after, and that's why he
wanted to throw in with us!"

"And why the devil shouldn't he?" asked the sheriff.

"For a good reason, sheriff, reason that'll save us a pile of riding.
We'll sit tight here in Sour Creek for a while and catch Sinclair right
here. D'you know how? By watching Cartwright and Sandersen. As sure as
they's a sky over us, Sinclair is going to make a try at one of 'em.
They both hate him. Well, you can lay to it that he hates 'em back. And
a man that Sinclair hates he's going to get sooner or later--chiefly
sooner. Sheriff, keep an eye on them two tonight, and you'll have
Sinclair playing right into your hands!"

"Looks to me," muttered Red Chalmers, "like you had a grudge agin'
Cartwright and Sandersen, using them for live bait and us for a trap."

"Why not?" asked Arizona, sitting down and rubbing his fat hands, much
pleased with himself. "Why not, I'd like to know?"

In the meantime Bill Sandersen had gone down to the street, still with
the staring eyes of a sleep walker. It was evening, and from the open
street he looked out and up to the mountains, growing blue and purple
against the sky. He had heard Hal Sinclair talk about Riley and Riley's
love for the higher mountains. They were "his country." And a great
surety dropped upon him that the fat man of the posse had been right.
Somewhere in those mountains Sinclair was lurking, ready for a descent
upon Sour Creek.

Now Sandersen grew cold. All that was superstitious in his nature took
him by the throat. The fate, which he had felt to be fighting with him,
he now was equally sure was aligned against him. Otherwise, why had the
posse refused to accept him as a member? For only one reason: He was
doomed to die by the hand of Riley Sinclair, and then, no doubt, Riley
Sinclair would fall in turn by the bullets of the posse.

The shadows were pouring out of the gorges of the western mountains,
and night began to invade the hollow of Sour Creek. Every downward step
of those shadows was to the feverish imagination of Sandersen a
forecast of the coming of Sinclair--Sinclair coming in spite of the
posse, in spite of the price upon his head.

In the few moments during which Sandersen remained in the stre