An' you, Happy?"

"Sounds tumble good to me, Hank," replied Jack, with the enthusiasm to be expected from one with his nickname.

"Wal then, good night. Breakfast here early," concluded Hays.

They parted. Jim Wall bent his cautious steps back to the barn.

Presently his eyes became used to the darkness and he made better progress. But he was not passing any trees or bushes or corners, nor did he enter the barnyard by the gate. Nothing intervened to occasion more caution. He found his pack where he had left it, and carrying it out into the open he made his bed and lay down in it, after removing only his gun belt.

Then he reviewed the events of the day and evening. That brief occupation afforded him no pleasure. Nevertheless, he decided that he was glad he had fallen in with Hank Hays and his cronies. He had been a lone wolf for so long that the society of any class of men would have been relief. Well he knew, however, that soon he would be on the go again. He could not stay in one locality long, though there had been several places where he would have liked to spend the rest of his life. At least he was not indifferent to beautiful and peaceful country. The rub was that no place could long remain peaceful for Jim Wall. It would be so here in Utah.

Sometimes, rarely, however, his thoughts impinged upon the distant past when for him there had been zest and thrill of adventure.

He had grown callous. It so happened that tonight he seemed on the threshold of another and extraordinary experience, even for him, and it kept him thought-provokingly awake, with only resentment and disillusion as reward.

Chapter 3

A red sunrise greeted Wall upon his awakening. He rolled his bed and carried it back to the corral. There was a thin skim of ice on the water in the trough. As it had not been broken, he believed that he was the first up. Bay whinnied to him from the stall.

When, a little later, he presented himself at the back of Red's house for breakfast, he was to find Hays, Happy Jack, and Brad Lincoln ahead of him.

"Mornin'!" said Hays cheerily. "Do you smell spring in the air?"

"Howdy, everybody!" replied Wall. "I guess I like this country."

"Only bad thing about this end of Utah is thet you hate to leave," observed the robber. "Usually we winter here an' go somewhere else in summer. It's hottern' hell here in July an' August. But I always want to come back. Gets hold of a feller. An' thet's bad."

They had breakfast. "Brad, you fetch your pack-hosses round back," ordered the leader, when they got outside. "Happy, you get yourself a hoss. Then meet us at the store quick as you can get there. .