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If he don't show signs o' bein' worried, I'm goin' to see if the overseer, Bart Heminway, won't take the chances of sendin' several of us out to hunt for strays; an' it'll be funny now, how them mavericks all run toward Thunder Mounting."
This makes a round half dozen head your father has lost in the last month, doesn't it?" asked Bob. "Seven, all told. When Bart Heminway told me he had noticed that one of those fine yearlings seemed lame, I wondered if something wasn't going to happen to it soon. And then, when we missed it from the herd last night, I guessed what had come about.
"I sure hope not, for the boys have had plenty of warning; and I reckon Bart Heminway is some too good an overseer to permit such a raid. I'd rather believe it was the X-bar-X outfit that has gone and got nipped this time. But stop and think Bob; what d'ye expect takes these cattle-rustlers over this way right now, headed straight for the canyons of Thunder Mountain?"
The full moon rising in the east had cast a nebulous glow over the whole countryside by now; and she could make a hasty estimation of their numbers. It was evident at once that her father had not made the expedition alone. The large outfit implied a party of at least three, indicating that Ray Brent and Chan Heminway had accompanied him.
He ain't got the least suspicion. What he'll do is hang around here a while, I suppose, prospecting and likely enough soon forget all about the old devil. I just came down here to tell you he was here and to watch your step." "Then the first thing up," Chan Heminway suggested, "is to bury the stiff." "Spoke up like a fool!" Ray answered. "Not till this man is dead or out of the country.
Notorious as he was through the northern provinces he was infinitely to be preferred to Chan Heminway, who sat at his left who, a weaker man than either Ray or Neilson, was simply a tool in the latter's hand, a smashing sledge or a cruel blade as his master wished. He was vicious without strength, brutal without self-control.
Perhaps he's heard something about the coming of Mr. Hinchman here, and the queer finding of the bottle that floated down the Colorado for one or two hundred miles. I spoke to the foreman, Bart Heminway, about it." "When would you want us to make a start?" asked Bob, looking as though he might be ready to jump into his saddle then and there.
Fenris had caught sight of Chan's figure as he ran for the nearest tree and seemingly with one leap he was upon him. He sprang at him from the side; and his fangs gleamed once. He had struck true, his fangs went home, and the life went out of Chan Heminway in a single, neighing scream. He pitched forward, shuddered once in the soft grass, and lay still.
Gloame, throwing her arms about her husband's neck. "Not yet, dearest," said Godfrey consolingly. "I was merely spending a season with an old friend, Harry Heminway. He asked about you and I told him you were so far above him that he ought to be ashamed to utter your name. Ah, Mr. Garrison has finished the toddy." Garrison ceremoniously filled the goblets and handed them to his guests.
Since Chan Heminway had already departed down the long trail to Bradleyburg a town situated nearly forty miles from Snowy Gulch Ray alone saw him pass; and he eyed him with some apprehension. Daylight had brought a more vivid consciousness of his last night's crime; and a little of his bravado had departed from him. He moved closer to his rifle. Yet in a moment his suspicions were allayed.