mall game went by
unnoticed.

Two o'clock passed without a sign of bear, save some tracks in the snow.
The wintry air had put a keen edge on Will's appetite, and hitching his
tired horse, he shot one of the lately scorned sage-hens, and broiled it
over a fire that invited a longer stay than an industrious bear-hunter
could afford. But nightfall found him and his quarry still many miles
asunder, and as he did not relish the prospect of a chaffing from the
men at the station, he cast about for a camping-place, finding one in an
open spot on the bank of a little stream. Two more sage-hens were added
to the larder, and he was preparing to kindle a fire when the whinnying
of a horse caught his ear. He ran to his own horse to check the certain
response, resaddled him, and disposed everything for flight, should it
be necessary. Then, taking his rifle, he put forth on a reconnoissance.

He shortly came upon a bunch of horses, a dozen or more, around a crook
of the stream. Above them, on the farther bank, shone a light. Drawing
nearer, he saw that it came from a dugout, and he heard his own language
spoken. Reassured, he walked boldly up to the door and rapped.

Silence--followed by a hurried whispering, and the demand:

"Who's there?"

"Friend and white man," answered Will.

The door opened reluctantly, and an ugly-looking customer bade him
enter. The invitation was not responded to with alacrity, for eight such
villainous-looking faces as the dugout held it would have been hard to
match. Too late to retreat, there was nothing for it but a determined
front, and let wit point the way of escape. Two of the men Will
recognized as discharged teamsters from Lew Simpson's train, and from
his knowledge of their longstanding weakness he assumed, correctly, that
he had thrust his head into a den of horsethieves.

"Who's with you?" was the first query; and this answered, with sundry
other information esteemed essential, "Where's your horse?" demanded the
most striking portrait in the rogues' gallery.

"Down by the creek," said Will.

"All right, sonny; we'll go down and get him," was the obliging
rejoinder.

"Oh, don't trouble yourself," said Will. "I'll fetch him and put up
here over night, with your permission. I'll leave my gun here till I get
back."

"That's right; leave your gun, you won't need it," said the leader of
the gang, with a grin that was as near amiability as his rough, stern
calling permitted him. "Jim and