The Night Horseman

ack of the card-laying stranger, "but this ain't your back-yard.

dog; not one of those high-whining noises, but a deep guttural that so

round as a girl's, and his hands as slender and as delicately finished. Whether it be the white-hot sun of summer or the hurricane snows of winter, the climate of the mountain-desert roughens the skin, and it cuts away spare flesh, hewing out the face in angles; but with this man there were no rough edges, but all was smoothed over and rounded with painful care; as if nature had concentrated in that birth to show what she could do. Such fine

e at once banished the frown from his forehead and put away his gun;

Maybe you've

e other. "I'm sorry that I

w, soft voice with the velvet of a young girl's tone in it; moreover, the

hoss out

of agr

s your

on

o have that hoss, understand? Got to! I ain't bargaining. I won't try to bea

s," said Barry. "Maybe

y. It could not, however, be possible. The eyes were as gravely apologetic as ever. He continued: "I seen the hell-fire in him. That's what stopped me like a bull

nd while they waited Strann queried

ered the o

re you c

waved a graceful hand towards

he concluded, "is to the black devil outside!" And he swallowed the liquor at a gulp, but as he replaced the empty glass on th

ck a heavy hand upon the top of the table. He regained

t horses are wort

ed bucks in cold cash-gold

at

E

at

again. "Five hundred for

de him," began

h a large and careless gestur

u take him for nothi

aces appeared at the gap. "Boys, this gent here is going to give me the black-ha, ha, ha!-if I can ride him!" He turned back on Barr

odded the br

followers as the latter stepped through

kind of simple; but it ain't my fault

im, for the instant his fingers touched the leather Satan twisted his head and snapped like an

of him," he announced

ou mount, Mr. Strann." And he edged his way through the

nn in real alarm, "or h

reins over its head. As for the stallion, it pricked one ear forward and then the other, and muzzl

t on," suggested Barry, turning

amned!" He added: "All right. Hold his head, and I'

ld. When Strann set his foot in the stirrup and gathered up the reins the black horse cringed and shuddered; it was not a pleasant thing to see; it was like a dog crouching under the suspended whip. It was w

by inches but he refused to have them lengthened. He p

ose!" he sho

rry stepped back from the head of the black. But for an instant the horse did not stir. He was tre

ar a barrier, landed stiff-legged with a sickening jar, whirled again like a spinning top, and darted straight back. And Jerry Strann pulled leather-with might and main-but the short stirrups were against him, and above all the suddenness of the start had taken him off guard for all his readiness. When the stallion dropped stiff-legged Jerry was thrown forward a

een from his open door and now he laid a hand on the shoulder of one of the men and whispered at his ear: "There's going to

last glance at Strann and

ed the most graceful of failures, but the smile of Jerr

hized. "But one try don't prove nothin'

le on his lips as he faced Jerry there would have been a gun play on t

about two trie

ut it now,"

dangerous and therefore there was one man who was in a

and lost. I guess you ain't going to turn up a

atan, and from Satan to his meek-eyed owner. Nowhere was there a defiant eye or a glint of scorn on which he could wreak h

," he called. "We'll li