Square Deal Sanderson

sting on a saddle seat. His sleep over, he had discovered that the saddle seat felt hard to his cheek. In changing his p

ket, and went to sleep again. Of course he had not neglected to take one sweeping glance ar

ak-unencumbered by rope or leather, was industriously cropping the dew-laden blades of some bunch-grass within a dozen yards

treak of dawn as he closed his eyes. There would be no vitriolic-voiced cook to ba

nket, get his own breakfast, and ride northeastward. He was a free agent n

full hour when he again awakened. He stret

aloud. "I'd say you've got a medium appetite. Th

big arroyo. Fifty feet from the camp rose the sloping north wall of the arroyo, with some dwarf spruce trees fringing its edge. Sanderson had taken a

his right hand slipping quickly to the butt of the pistol at his right hip. His c

of animal and rider as they appeared for an instant, partly screened from him by the trees and undergrowth

y incidents of life, and where a man's safety depended entirely upon his own vigilance and wisdom, Sanderson got up carefu

of any evil intentions; he might by this time be riding strai

thily, leaning forward over the black horse's mane as though des

om the gully-thinking he was far enough away to escape observation, and yet not quite certa

debating an impulse to climb to the top of the gully, to see if the rider was in sight, he heard a sound as

se-which was further concealed by the thicket of alder. The men, however, did not look into the arroyo. Their attention and interest appeared to

one of the men lau

his trail, an' reckons on givin' us the slip. I never thought Bill w

said. "I ain't never trusted him. He won't div

ckon we won't take chances on losin' him again-l

Sanderson could hear the clatter of hoofs, receding. He

hat all were concerned in a personal quarrel which was no concern of Sanderson's. It was also apparent to Sanderson that the

rifted into the West to exact its toll from a people who could

with the other two, and that the first rider had decamped with the entire spoils. That m

and so, working rapidly, he broke camp, threw saddle and bridle on the white horse, strapped his slicker to the cantle of