tains and in a country of scattering hills,
but here it struck a steep grade and settled down to a grind of slow
labor; the rails hummed, and suspense filled the freight car.

"Hey," cried Lefty suddenly. "You fool, you'll do a flop out the door in
about a minute!"

He even reached out to steady the toppling figure, but Donnegan pitched
straight out into the night. Lefty craned his neck from the door,
studying the roadbed, but at that moment the locomotive topped the
little rise and the whole train lurched forward.

"After all," murmured Lefty Joe, "it sounds like Donnegan. Hated a guy
so bad that he hadn't any use for livin' when he heard the other guy was
dead. But I'm never goin' to cross his path again, I hope."

5

But Donnegan had leaped clear of the roadbed, and he struck almost to
the knees in a drift of sand. Otherwise, he might well have broken his
legs with that foolhardy chance. As it was, the fall whirled him over
and over, and by the time he had picked himself up the lighted caboose
of the train was rocking past him. Donnegan watched it grow small in the
distance, and then, when it was only a red, uncertain star far down the
track, he turned to the vast country around him.

The mountains were to his right, not far away, but caught up behind the
shadows so that it seemed a great distance. Like all huge, half-seen
things they seemed in motion toward him. For the rest, he was in bare,
rolling country. The sky line everywhere was clean; there was hardly a
sign of a tree. He knew, by a little reflection, that this must be
cattle country, for the brakie had intimated as much in their talk just
before dusk. Now it was early night, and a wind began to rise, blowing
down the valley with a keen motion and a rapidly lessening temperature,
so that Donnegan saw he must get to a shelter. He could, if necessary,
endure any privation, but his tastes were for luxurious comfort.
Accordingly he considered the landscape with gloomy disapproval. He was
almost inclined to regret his plunge from the lumbering freight train.
Two things had governed him in making that move. First, when he
discovered that the long trail he followed was definitely fruitless, he
was filled with a great desire to cut himself away from his past and
make a new start. Secondly, when he learned that Rusty Dick had been
killed by Joe, he wanted desperately to get the throttle of the latter
under his thumb. If ever a man risked his life to avo