and whispering
for him to stay there and be still.

Then Wade's action in looking to his belt-guns was that of a man who
expected to have recourse to them speedily and by whom the necessity was
neither regretted nor feared. Stooping low, he entered the thicket of
spruces. The soft, spruce-matted ground, devoid of brush or twig, did
not give forth the slightest sound of step, nor did the brushing of the
branches against his body. In some cases he had to bend the boughs.
Thus, swiftly and silently, with the gliding steps of an Indian, he
approached the cabin till the brown-barked logs loomed before him,
shutting off the clearer light.

He smelled a mingling of wood and tobacco smoke; he heard low, deep
voices of men; the shuffling and patting of cards; the musical click of
gold. Resting on his knees a moment the hunter deliberated. All was
exactly as he had expected. Luck favored him. These gamblers would be
absorbed in their game. The door of the cabin was just around the
corner, and he could glide noiselessly to it or gain it in a few leaps.
Either method would serve. But which he must try depended upon the
position of the men inside and that of their weapons.

Rising silently, Wade stepped up to the wall and peeped through a chink
between the logs. The sunshine streamed through windows and door. Jack
Belllounds sat on the ground, full in its light, back to the wall. He
was in his shirt-sleeves. The gambling fever and the grievous soreness
of a loser shone upon his pale face. Smith sat with back to Wade,
opposite Belllounds. The other men completed the square. All were close
enough together to reach comfortably for the cards and gold before them.
Wade's keen eyes took this in at a single glance, and then steadied
searchingly for smaller features of the scene. Belllounds had no weapon.
Smith's belt and gun lay in the sunlight on the hard, clay floor, out of
reach except by violent effort. The other two rustlers both wore their
weapons. Wade gave a long scrutiny to the faces of these comrades of
Smith, and evidently satisfied himself as to what he had to expect
from them.

Wade hesitated; then stooping low, he softly swept aside the intervening
boughs of spruce, glided out of the thicket into the open. Two noiseless
bounds! Another, and he was inside the door!

"Howdy, rustlers! Don't move!" he called.

The surprise of his appearance, or his voice, or both, stunned the four
men. Belllounds dropped his cards, and hi