Raw Gold

since we had seen each other last. And although we gabbled freely enough, MacRae avoided all mention of the persons of whom I most wished to hear. I didn't press him, for I knew that

of grist for the conversational mill. Our talk ranged from the Panha

d been alone he would have made the post by sundown, for the Mounted Police rode picked horses, the best money could buy. But it was a long jaunt to Benton, and

on, the dark enveloped us like a black sea-mist. Once or twice we startled a little bunch of buffalo, and listened to the thud of their hoofs as they fled through the sultry, velvet glo

. As I waited for Mac to strike a match my eyes roved about, seeking to pierce the unnatural blackness that wrapped itself about us, and while my gaze was for an in

y camped down th

st, not an ordinary one. There are some folk in this country, you know, who manifest a very reti

he middle of a sentence as the flare leaped up, flickered an instant, and was blotted out again. I could have sw

d eagerly. "Somebody

at something crooked is going on, and I reckon I'll go down and see what

ight run into most any kind of formatio

comes up, four men's a heap better'n one. If you're bound t' mix in,

the feel of the ground underfoot. He led us a hundr

to get down and lead your horses," he warned. "It

boulders on that hillside the noise of our coming would have alarmed a deaf man; but the soft dirt and slippery grass g

possible, than the gloomy hills above. Perplexed, MacRae halted, and we bunched together, whispering, each of us straining his eyes and ears to catch some sight or sound of life in that black, ghostly quiet. We might have concluded that our senses had been playing pranks

rely visible, even at short range, under its covering of earth. A dimly outlined bulk lay beside it, and leaning over in our saddles, the faint glow of the coals revealed a man's body, half stripped of its clothing, an

k in the surrounding thicket. Mac swore under his breath when he bent and peered keenly at the man's face; then he straightened up and kicked a part of the clay covering from the smoldering embers. As the br

at our feet when MacRae unmasked the fire, and the flare of it surrounded us with a yellow nimbus that made us fair marks for a gun. With that dazzling light in our eyes and those ugly-looking customers at the business end of the guns, it would have been out and out suicide to reach for a six

es out of sight. When he did that I began to hope the horses were all they wanted, that they had no knowledge of the money I carried;

ered gazabo's got the st

nd I couldn't figure where I'd delay giving up beyond the length of time it would take the gentleman with the Winchester to drill me. Under the circumstances it didn't take long to decide tha

er feature of the play that I didn't sabe at the time. He reached down inside my shirt, with a none too gentle hand, and r