n by the diversity, dash
and success of their raids. No one, save the three men whom they had
destroyed, had ever seen them. But, like Tamale Jose, they had raided
once too often.

Mr. Trendley, more familiarly known to men as "Slippery," was the
possessor of a biased conscience, if any at all. Tall, gaunt and
weather-beaten and with coal-black eyes set deep beneath hairless
eyebrows, he was sinister and forbidding. Into his forty-five years of
existence he had crowded a century of experience, and unsavory rumors
about him existed in all parts of the great West. From Canada to Mexico
and from Sacramento to Westport his name stood for brigandage. His
operations had been conducted with such consummate cleverness that in
all the accusations there was lacking proof.

Only once had he erred, and then in the spirit of pure deviltry and in
the days of youthful folly, and his mistake was a written note. He
was even thought by some to have been concerned in the Mountain Meadow
Massacre; others thought him to have been the leader of the band of
outlaws that had plundered along the Santa Fe Trail in the late '60's.
In Montana and Wyoming he was held responsible for the outrages of the
band that had descended from the Hole-in-the-Wall territory and for over
a hundred miles carried murder and theft that shamed as being weak the
most assiduous efforts of zealous Cheyennes. It was in this last raid
that he had made the mistake and it was in this raid that Frenchy
McAllister had lost his wife.

When Frenchy had first been approached by Buck as to his going in search
of the rustlers he had asked to go alone. This had been denied by the
foreman of the Bar-20 because the men whom he had selected to accompany
the scout were of such caliber that their presence could not possibly
form a hindrance. Besides being his most trusted friends they were
regarded by him as being the two best exponents of "gun-play" that the
West afforded. Each was a specialist: Hopalong, expert beyond belief
with his Colt's six-shooters, was only approached by Red, whose
Winchester was renowned for its accuracy. The three made a perfect
combination, as the rashness of the two younger men would be under the
controlling influence of a man who could retain his coolness of mind
under all circumstances.

When Buck and Frenchy looked into each other's eyes there sprang into
the mind of each the same name--Slippery Trendley. Both had spent the
greater part of a year in