The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1923-12-27

What did y'u make o. them tracks
y'u foller'd yisterd'y-f'om them
bushes on the edge o. the cliff back O.
y'ur cabin an past the oil log? | seed
y'u'd ben foller'n' 'em as l crossed the
trail m'se'f this mornin'."
The young man bent an amazed
look upon his aged friend, lost in won
der at his marvellous woodcraft.
Il got a look at the man that made
EN-" was his slow answer, while he
laid b'hind that log a-watchin' me
straighten up the fence. / don't think
he knows l saw i'm, but l did-it was
the Teller that stirred up all that rum
pus at the schoolhouse night b'fore
last"
The old man threw away his sassa-
fras shoot an eager seriousness
crossed his face.
THAT wus Black Bogus"
The younger man stared.
"Nor
"Hit were"
The woodsman fell suddenly
thoughtful glanced away across the
hollow toward where the double trail
led through the woods. The old man
studied him curiously. 1t may be each
was thinking the same thought-that
strange resemblance that had so puz-
zled them both-but neither let fall
any inkling of it to the other.
"Al knows 'im," Uncle Nick went on
after a moment. Hes a friend of
Loge Belden's-an' he thinks mebbe
he's harborin' up thar with i'm"
He jerked his thumb up the hollow
toward where a section of the warped
roof of Loge Belden's squalid cabin
barely protruded above the bushes
seemed to weigh his next words be-
fore letting them fall.
Anyhow, 1 thought I'd pint M nose
up the crick an kinda throw an eye
on Loge's cabin t. see If e u.s."
"An' if e is-T' the other ques-
toned, having caught the curious look.
The caution of q lifetime in the
woods prompted the old hunter to
look guardedly in every direction be-
fore answering.
Don't let on y'u know it"-he came
a step nearer-"but Al says Belden
blongs t. the same gang O. cutthroats
down Vincennes way that Black 30
gus does, an he thinks more n likely
plottin' t. crack oil Slime Col
ms safe"
The hardness that had come at the
mountain girls warning crept again
into the woodsman's eyes, but he
made no comment. The other, know
Ing him well, did not seem to expect
any.
81 low y'u nee'n' t be told they
amt neither one got much time FIR
you, after what happened at the post
office an at the schoolhouse-an'
the kind that won't stay
licked, an the kind that strikes in the
Jack picked up the heavy shotgun
from where he had laid it aside when
about to rush upon his old friend,
:houghtfully blew a dead grass blade
)ut from between the hammer and the
ock, but offered no word. The old
nan again bent his furtive look upon
lin and went on.
"Black Bogus-they's fifty sheriffs
i-lookin' FIR him, an a standin' reward
If five thousan' dollars, dead r
alive"
The young man finched, looked
xeenly at the other.
Uncle Nick-y'u wouldn't"
mo, l wouldn't the old man re-
piled with instant readiness to the
lalf-implied imputation. 1--WE shot
men in my time. 1 never sold one"
He stepped around the great sugar
maple, motiOned for the other to fol-
ow, and stole away along the brow Of
he bluff, quite obviously in serious
earnest.
The young woodsman fell into the
rail-. STEPPED in the caution that
anne from much living alone, he said
but it was the one thing that
lad brought him to the woods that
norning-to have a look at Loge Bel
lens cabin.
Reaching a point. at length, a short
distance below where the suspected
.abin squatted, they crept down the
led of a dry wash-out and through
ONE thickets of brier and hazel until
hey lay within less than a hundred
ards of its crude and mud daubed
walls.
There seemed to be 40 n about
kept the comedy mountain girl, who
anne to the open door a time or two
o look out, as if she expected some
one that she would rather
ot see, to judge by the troubled ex-
of her face-a face whose
sadness had so impressed the
at that strained and hur-
led interview.
1t was late in the forenoon when,
bove them on the hillside, they heard
he swish of a brush swinging back
lto place after having been dragged
side. Uncle Nick held up a cautious
niger, and they crouched lower in the
avon