mself, without finish, loosely
joined. Its planks were oak; great nails in them marked the Z of its
brace.

Then Mackenzie turned his eyes upon Reid again. Reid went back to the
inner door, pushed it, tried it with his foot. It seemed to be
fastened within. Perhaps there was a reason for its strength; maybe
Swan kept his crude treasures locked there in that small stronghold of
logs while he roamed the range after his sheep. Reid did not appear
greatly interested in the door, or what lay behind it. He turned from
it almost at once, drew his chair in front of it, sat down, his right
hand toward Mackenzie, the lantern light strong on the lower part of
his body, his face in shadow from the lantern's top. Mackenzie
quickened with a new interest, a new speculation, when he saw that
Reid's holster hung empty at his belt.

At once Mackenzie decided to speak to Reid, certain that he had been
through some misadventure in which he had suffered loss. He drew away
from the window, going around the front part of the house to come to
the kitchen door, thinking it might be wise to know the way the land
lay around those premises.

This part of the house was little larger than the shack of boards that
had been built to it. There was no opening in its solid log walls,
neither of window or door save alone the door opening into the
kitchen. The place was a vault.

Somebody was approaching, riding rapidly up the valley. There was more
than one horse, Mackenzie could well make out as he stood at the
corner of the house, listening. He saw Reid's shadow fall in the light
that spread through the open door, and turned back to keep his watch
at the window.

It was not the moment to offer friendship or sympathy to Reid.
Something of Reid's own brewing was coming to a boil there, some
business of his own was drawing to a head in that lonely cabin among
the whispering trees.

Reid took up the lantern, stood a moment as if indecisive, placed it
on the stove. Not satisfied with the way the light of it struck him
there, apparently, he removed it and stood it in a corner. Whoever was
coming, Reid did not want it known at a glance that his scabbard was
empty. Mackenzie pressed a little nearer the window. When a man
prepared for a meeting with that caution, he would do to watch.

Reid went to the open door, where he stood like a host to receive his
guests. The riders were among the trees; coming on more slowly. Now
they stopped, and Reid turned t