fe, was still ruthless and unquenchable in its hope.

"Wade, for God's sake save Columbine!" importuned Wilson.

"Oh, if you only could!" cried Columbine, impelled beyond her power to
resist by that prayer.

"Lass, you stand by your convictions," he said, impressively. "An'
Moore, you be a man an' don't make it so hard for her. Neither of you
can do anythin'.... Now there's old Belllounds--he'll never change. He
might r'ar up for this or that, but he'll never change his cherished
hopes for his son.... But Jack might change! Lookin' back over all the
years I remember many boys like this Buster Jack, an' I remember how in
the nature of their doin's they just hanged themselves. I've a queer
foresight about people whose trouble I've made my own. It's somethin'
that never fails. When their trouble's goin' to turn out bad then I feel
a terrible yearnin' to tell the story of Hell-Bent Wade. That foresight
of trouble gave me my name.... But it's not operatin' here.... An' so,
my young friends, you can believe me when I say somethin' will happen.
As far as October first is concerned, or any time near, Collie isn't
goin' to marry Jack Belllounds."

CHAPTER X

One day Wade remarked to Belllounds: "You can never tell what a dog is
until you know him. Dogs are like men. Some of 'em look good, but
they're really bad. An' that works the other way round. If a dog's born
to run wild an' be a sheep-killer, that's what he'll be. I've known dogs
that loved men as no humans could have loved them. It doesn't make any
difference to a dog if his master is a worthless scamp."

"Wal, I reckon most of them hounds I bought had no good masters, judgin'
from the way they act," replied the rancher.

"I'm developin' a first-rate pack," said Wade. "Jim hasn't any faults
exceptin' he doesn't bay enough. Sampson's not as true-nosed as Jim, but
he'll follow Jim, an' he has a deep, heavy bay you can hear for miles.
So that makes up for Jim's one fault. These two hounds hang together,
an' with them I'm developin' others. Denver will split off of bear or
lion tracks when he jumps a deer. I reckon he's not young enough to be
cured of that. Some of the younger hounds are comin' on fine. But
there's two dogs in the bunch that beat me all hollow."

"Which ones?" asked Belllounds.

"There's that bloodhound, Kane," replied the hunter. "He's sure a queer
dog. I can't win him. He minds me now because I licked him, an' once
good an' hard when he bit me.