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Every o to theand peer out down the road His companions evidently relied upon him, for no one else looked out Now that the suspense of days and weeks was over, these Texans faced the issue with talk and act not noticeably different from those of ordinary moments
At last Jean espied the dark ether, walking their mounts, and evidently in earnest conversation After several ineffectual attempts Jean counted eleven horses, every one of which he was sure bore a rider
"Dad, look out!" called Jean
Gaston Isbel strode to the door and stood looking, without a word
The other men crowded to the s Blaisdell cursed under his breath Jacobs said: "By Golly! Come to pay us a call!" The women sat motionless, with dark, strained eyes The children ceased their play and looked fearfully to their mother
When just out of rifle shot of the cabins the band of horse the ranch They were close enough for Jean to see their gestures, but he could not recognize any of their faces It struck hiularly that not one of them wore a mask
"Jean, do you know any of them?" asked his father "No, not yet They're too far off"
"Dad, I'll get your old telescope," said Guy Isbel, and he ran out toward the adjoining cabin
Blaisdell shook his big, hoary head and rumbled out of his bull-like neck, "Wal, now you're heah, you sheep fellars, what are you goin' to do aboot it?"
Guy Isbel returned with a yard-long telescope, which he passed to his father The oldhands and leveled it Suddenly it was as if he had been transfixed; then he lowered the glass, shaking violently, and his face grew gray with an exceeding bitter wrath
"Jorth!" he swore, harshly
Jean had only to look at his father to know that recognition had been like a lass
"Wal, Blaisdell, there's our old Texas friend, Daggs," he drawled, dryly "An' Greaves, our honest storekeeper of Grass Valley An' there's Stonewall Jackson Jorth An' Tad Jorth, with the sa isn't Queen, as bad a gun fighter as Texas ever bred Shore I thought he'd been killed in the Big Bend country So I heard An' there's Craig, another respectable sheepnize any more of them"