his long cunning face grew more like a blank.

"No, my nephew isn't in sight, as I can see, Sheriff," he replied,
with a frown, and a look toward Allan, as though to say that it was
his opinion the boy might produce the one they sought, if proper force
were applied.

"Having a hunt up here in the mountains, are you, boys?" asked the
sheriff, as he followed the example of the lawyer, and dropped down
near the fire, crossing his legs tailor-fashion, as though he meant to
make himself quite at home.

"Yes, we want to get a big-horn or so to take back with us," replied
Allan.

"Just the four of you?" continued the other, arching his heavy brows
as if with surprise.

"Oh! no, there are a lot of other fellows," replied the scout who took
Thad's place as leader when the other happened to be absent.

"Oh! that's it, eh? Rest off on a little side hunt right now, I
reckon. P'raps you've got a guide along with you, too?" the officer
continued, bending his neck, so that he could see inside the nearest
tent, the flap of which happened to be on the side toward him, and
thrown back to allow of ventilation.

"Oh! yes, we've got a guide now, though for a long time we had to go
it alone, and managed to get on pretty well," Allan continued,
wondering why it was he could catch a peculiar quizzical gleam in the
snapping eyes of the other, once in a while, when the sheriff looked
straight at him.

"Who is he; perhaps I might happen to know him?" asked the other,
accepting a tin cup filled with coffee, from Bumpus.

"I'm sure you do, sir," Allan hastened to remark; and then,
remembering that he was not supposed to know of the visit the sheriff
and his employer had paid to the camp of the big-horn hunters on the
previous night, he hastened to add: "everybody knows honest Toby
Smathers, the forest ranger, I should think."

"Well, I should say, yes, I did," replied the other, commencing to
calmly devour the piece of venison that had been placed on his
platter, as though his appetite was sharp indeed this bracing morning.
"And so you boys have come away out here just to see what we've got in
these Rockies, eh?"

"Just what we have, sir," replied Giraffe, thinking that he would like
to have the sheriff notice him a little.

"And I declare, you seem to be fixed pretty comfortable like," the
other went on. "Just look at the tents they brought with them, Mr.
Rawson. I've always said that on the whole they were better than the
old-fas