he
shadow at that end which was next the corral wavered, stopped, and then
moved unmistakably. All the front of the stable was distinctly visible
in the white light, and, while they looked, something flitted across it,
and disappeared among the sage beyond the trail.

Again they waited; two minutes, three minutes, five. Then another shadow
detached itself slowly from the shade of the stable, hesitated, walked
out boldly, and crossed the white sand on the path to the house.
Baumberger it was, and he stopped midway to light his pipe, and so,
puffing luxuriously, went on into the blackness of the grove.

They heard him step softly upon the porch, heard also the bovine sigh
with which he settled himself in the armchair there. They caught the
aromatic odor of tobacco smoke ascending, and knew that his presence
there had all at once become the most innocent, the most natural
thing in the world; for any man, waking on such a night, needs no
justification for smoking a nocturnal pipe upon the porch while he gazes
dreamily out upon the moon-bathed world around him.

Peppajee touched Grant's arm, and turned back, skirting the poplars
again until they were well away from the house, and there was no
possibility of being heard. He stopped there, and confronted the other.

"What for you no stoppum stable?" he questioned bluntly. "What for you
no stoppum ranch, for sleepum?"

"I go for stoppum Hicks' ranch," said Good Indian, without any attempt
at equivocation.

Peppajee grunted. "What for yo' no stoppum all same Peaceful?"

Good Indian scorned a subterfuge, and spoke truly. "That girl, Evadna,
no likum me. All time mad me. So I no stoppum ranch, no more."

Peppajee grinned briefly and understandingly, and nodded his head. "Me
heap sabe. Yo' all time heap like for catchum that girl, be yo' squaw.
Bimeby that girl heap likum yo'. Me sabe." He stood a moment staring at
the stars peeping down from above the rim-rock which guarded the bluff.
"All same, yo' no go stoppum Hicks," he commanded. "Yo' stoppum dis
ranch all time. Yo' all time watchum man--yo' callum Baumberga." He
seemed to remember and speak the name with some difficulty. "Where
him go, yo' go, for heap watchum. All time mebbyso me watchum
Man-that-coughs. Me no sabe catchum ranch--all same, me watchum. Them
mans heap kay bueno. Yo' bet yo' life!"

A moment he stood there after he was through speaking, and then he was
not there. Good Indian did not hear him go, thou