d adventurers--and these have all, in some
measure, left their impress on the town.

Sleepy Cat lies prettily on a high plateau north and east of the
railroad, which makes a detour here to the north to round the
Superstition Range; it is a county-seat, and this, where counties are
as large as ordinary Eastern States, gives it some political
distinction.

The principal street lies just north of the railroad, and parallels
it. A modern and substantial hotel has for some years filled the
corner above the station. The hotel was built by Harry Tenison soon
after the opening of the Thief River gold-fields. Along Main Street to
the west are strung the usual mountain-town stores and saloons, but to
the north a pretty residence district has been built up about the
court-house square. And a good water-supply, pumped from Rat River, a
brawling mountain stream that flows just south of the town, has
encouraged the care of lawns and trees.

Before de Spain had walked far he heard music from the open-air
dancing-pavilion in Grant Street. Stirred by an idle curiosity, he
turned the corner and stopped to watch the crowded couples whirling up
and down the raised platform under paper lanterns and red streamers to
the music of an automatic piano. He took his place in a fringe of
onlookers that filled the sidewalk. But he was thinking as he stood,
not of the boisterous dancing or the clumsy dancers, but of the
broken lever and the defeat at the fair-grounds. It still rankled in
his mind. While he stood thinking the music ceased.

A man, who appeared to be in authority, walked to the centre of the
dancing-floor and made an announcement that de Spain failed to catch.
The manager apparently repeated it to those of his patrons that
crowded around him, and more than once to individual inquirers who had
not caught the purport of what had been said. These late comers he
pushed back, and when the floor had been well cleared he nodded to the
boy operating the piano, and looked toward a young couple standing in
an attitude of waiting at the head of the hall.

All eyes being turned their way, de Spain's attention as well was
drawn toward them. The man was powerful in stature, and rather too
heavy, but straight as an Indian. His small, reddish face was tanned
by the sun and wind, and his manner as he stood with arms akimbo, his
hands resting on his belt, facing his partner and talking to her, had
the confidence of a man at ease with women. From t