spapers on one of the oil-cloth covered tables went flying across the room, while the rain drove in and blackened the floor. Hap Smith got the door shut and for a m

ear her roar! Poke Drury, I'm tellin' you, I'm glad your shack's right where it is instead of seventeen miles fu'ther on. An' ... Where's th

openly at his right hip. Bill Varney had always carried a rifle and had been unable to avail himself of it in time; Hap Smith in assuming the responsibilities of the United States Mail had forth

as there ain't no bed for her to go to. Ma Drury is inhabitin' one right now,

an tuckered out an' cold an' wet. She'd ought to have a bed to creep into." His eyes r

n' I'd like to see the jasper as would try pryin' Ma l

, and sighing reached out a

duty, he tossed off his liquor, stretched his thick arms high over his head, squared his shoulders comfortably in his blue flannel shirt and g

his bleary, red rimmed ferret eyes gimleting at the

ared at him

ays! An' here I been ridin' alongside her all day an' never once does it p

; not in this end of the world least ways. But us boys finds it kind of intere

in't ever been there, havin' tol' me so on the stage less'n two hours ago, what's the sense of sayin' a foo

e, will you?" and close up to the driver's eyes he thrust the road house register with its newly p

she abides, so to speak. An' me an' these other boys," with a sweeping glance at the four of his recent male passengers, "is hungrier than wolves. How about

ted "Poh!" at him again and clapped him good naturedly on the thin old shoulders after such a fashion as

kable signs of his embarrassment. Slowly under several

d with a very soft, flabby hand. "I clean forgot you boys hadn't had supper. An' now ... the gru

Hap Smith he again smote his

havin' got so excited over a pretty girl he forgot w

attention to the fact that the stage was several hours late, hinted at danger from the same gentleman who had taken off Bill Varney on

itchen door opened and the girl, her quilt

pon the broad genial face of Hap Smith as upon the visage of an old friend. "I am not going to be stupid," she announced with a little air of taking the situatio

d and turned her eyes gravely to meet the eyes directed upon her. Hers were clear, untroubled, a deep grey and eminently pleasant to look into; especially now that she put into

after that. "Pretty, like a picture," offered Joe Hamby in a guarded whisper to one of the recent arrivals, who was standing with him a

eplied pleasantly? "Never travelled with a nicer lady." Whereupon Joe Hamby regarded him enviously. And old man Adams, with a sly look out of his senile old eyes, jerked his thin old body across the floor, dragging a chair afte

he coffee was boiling in the coals of the fireplace. Then the front door, the knob turned and released from without, was blown wide open by the gusty wind and a tall man stood in the black rectangle of the doorway. His appearance and attitude were significant, making us

d not seen, her back being to the door. Nor had old man Adams, his red rimmed eyes being on the girl. They turned together. The old man's jaw droppe

e stage driver's hand had gone to the butt of his revolver and now rested there. The muzzle of the short bar

seen the gesture. The roar of the shotgun there in the house sounded like that of a cannon; the smoke lifted and spread and swirled in the draft. Bert Stone went down with a scream of pa

hesitating nor hurrying, eminently cool and confident, came into the room. The girl studied him curiously, marking each trifling detail of his costume: the shaggy black chaps like those of a cowboy off for a gay holiday; the soft grey shirt and silk h

; she could not see them in the shadow of his hat, but had an unpleasant sensation of a

the two mail bags with his feet. And with his feet he pushed them out to the open, along the wall, toward the door. Hap Smith snarle

ht. Hap Smith and four or five other men had drawn their guns and were firing after him. There were outcries, above them surging the curses of the stage driver. Bert Stone was moaning on the floor. The girl wanted to go to him but for a litt

ldly. "You ain't k

e room to the fallen man. Then it was that the girl by

happened?" Ma Dr

nd in the same breath ordered the door shut. A tardy squeal and another like an echo came from the room which harboured Lew Yates's wife and mother-in-law. Perhaps they had just com

carried a mail bag in each hand, muddy and wet, having stumbled over them

untouched. The lean bag however had been slit ope

n backs," he said heavily. "They trusted it to me

end was white and unconscious ... perhaps already his tale was told. Hap Smith looked from

red lugubriously; "th