of his long nervous
fingers, how small it was!; and yet the hand which had wrinkled the
leather was strong enough to hold the heart of a man. He slipped and
caught the shaggy black head of Bart between his hands. The wolf
knew--in some mysterious way he knew!

The touch of sympathy unnerved him. All his sorrow and his weakness
burst on his soul in a single wave. A big tear struck the shining nose
of the wolf.

"Bart!" he whispered. "Did you figger on plumb bustin' my heart, pal?"

To avoid those large melancholy eyes, Bart pressed his head inside of
his master's arms.

"Delilah!" whispered Dan.

After that not a sound came from the three, the horse, the dog, or
the man. Black Bart curled up at the feet of his master and seemed to
sleep, but every now and then an ear raised or an eye twitched open.
He was on guard against a danger which he did not understand. The
horse, also, with a high head scanned the circling willows, alert; but
the man for whom the stallion and the wolf watched gave no heed to
either. There was a vacant and dreamy expression in his eye as if he
was searching his own inner heart and found there the greatest enemy
of all. All night they sat in this manner, silent, moveless; the
animals watching against the world, the man watching against himself.
Before dawn he roused himself suddenly, crossed to the sleeping
marshal, and touched him on the arm.

"It's time we hit the trail," he said, as Calder sat up in the
blanket.

"What's happened? Isn't it our job to comb the willows?"

"Silent ain't in the willows."

Calder started to his feet.

"How do you know?"

"They ain't close to us, that's all I know."

Tex smiled incredulously.

"I suppose," he said good humouredly, "that your _instinct_ brought you
this message?"

"Instinct?" repeated Dan blankly, "I dunno."

Calder grew serious.

"We'll take a chance that you may be right. At least we can ride down
the river bank and see if there are any fresh tracks in the sand. If
Silent started this morning I have an idea he'll head across the river
and line out for the railroad."

In twenty minutes their breakfast was eaten and they were in the
saddle. The sun had not yet risen when they came out of the willows to
the broad shallow basin of the river. In spring, when the snow of the
mountains melted, that river filled from bank to bank with a yellow
torrent; at the dry season of the year it was a dirty little creek
meandering through the s