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"No sign of Burt?" he asked

Wilson expressed a mild surprise "Wal, Snake, you ain't expectin' Burt now?"

"I am, course I am Why not?" demanded Anson "Any other time we'd look fer him, wouldn't we?"

"Any other time ain't now Burt won't ever come back!" Wilson spoke it with a positive finality

"A-huh! Soain, hey? Them onnatural kind thet you can't explain, hey?"

Anson's queries were bitter and rancorous

"Yes An', Snake, I tax you with this heah Ain't any of them queer feelin's operatin' in you?"

"No!" rolled out the leader, savagely But his passionate denial was a proof that he lied Fro to the old, brave instincts of his character, unless a sudden change marked the nature of his fortunes, he would rapidly deteriorate to the breaking-point And in such brutal, unrestrained natures as his this breaking-pointof events, a desperate accumulation of passions that stalked out to deal and to meet disaster and blood and death

Wilson put a little wood on the fire and he munched a biscuit No one asked him to cook No one made any effort to do so One by one each et some bread and meat

Then they waited as men who knew not what they waited for, yet hated and dreaded it

Twilight in that glen was naturally a strange, veiled condition of the atht, which two see and sta of the horses startled the"Coloo of brush, and the deep voices ofthree of the horses, which they haltered in the open glen

The caht showed Anson's face dark and serious

"Jim, them hosses are wilder 'n deer," he said "I ketched ot two But the rest worked ahenever we cootta rustle out thar quick"

Wilson rose, shaking his head doubtfully And at that h of a terrified horse Prolonged to a screech, it broke and ended Then followed snorts of fright, pound and crack and thud of hoofs, and crash of brush; then a gathering thu sounds