Ben finished these words, there was a confused noise outside, the
hoarse murmur as of angry men, and a minute later Jim Brown the landlord
entered the room, his face dark and threatening.

"Strangers," said he, "I reckoned there was something wrong about you
when you let that yaller heathen sit down with you. Now, I know it. You
ain't square, respectable men; you're hoss-thieves!"

CHAPTER XV.

BILL MOSELY REAPPEARS.

It will be necessary to go back a little in order to explain how so
extraordinary a charge came to be made against the party in which we are
interested.

Bill Mosely and Tom Hadley did not become reconciled to the loss of
their stolen horses. They found it much less agreeable to use their own
legs than the legs of the two mustangs which had borne them so
comfortably over the hills. They cursed the fate which had led to their
meeting with Ki Sing, and the poor Chinaman would have fared worse at
their hands had they anticipated the trouble which he indirectly brought
them.

Bill Mosely was naturally lazy; any sort of work he considered beneath
him, and he desired to avoid all possible trouble in the lawless and
vagabond life which he had chosen. He took it worse, indeed, than his
companion, who was neither so shiftless nor so lazy as he.

During the few days which had elapsed since they were glad to leave the
mountain-cabin they had averaged less than ten miles' daily travel. They
had money enough to purchase animals to replace those which had been
taken from them, but had not found any one who was willing to sell for a
reasonable price, and Mosely, though he came easily by his money, was
far from lavish in the spending of it.

It chanced that an hour after the arrival of Richard Dewey and his party
at the Golden Gulch Hotel, Mosely and his companion, dusty and tired,
approached the small mining-settlement, of which the hotel was the
principal building.

They had had nothing to eat since morning, and both of them felt hungry,
not to say ravenous.

"Thank Heaven, Tom, there's a mining-town!" ejaculated Mosely, with an
expression of devotion not usual to him. "Now we can get something to
eat, and I, for my part, feel as empty as a drum. It's hard travelling
on an empty stomach."

"I should say so," remarked Mr. Hadley, with his usual formula. It must
be admitted, however, that in the present instance he was entirely
sincere, and fully meant what he said.

"There's a hotel," said Tom Had