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Then, stooping, he stole froe of rocks and bunches of sage, until he had reached the thickets under the opposite wall Once there, he exercised extreround ahead, but increased his speed whenfrom bush to bush, he passed the mouths of two canyons, and in the entrance of a third canyon he crossed a wash of swift clear water, to come abruptly upon the cattle trail

It followed the low bank of the wash, and, keeping it in sight, Venters hugged the line of sage and thicket Like the curves of a serpent the canyon wound for a mile or more and then opened into a valley Patches of red showed clear against the purple of sage, and farther out on the level dotted strings of red led away to the wall of rock

"Ha, the red herd!" exclaimed Venters

Then dots of white and black told him there were cattle of other colors in this inclosed valley Oldring, the rustler, was also a rancher Venters's calculating eye took count of stock that outnue!" went on Venters "Water and grass enough for fifty thousand head, and no riders needed!"

After his first burst of surprise and rapid calculation Venters lost no tie on his back trail With the discovery of Oldring's hidden cattle-range had cohtenment on several problems Here the rustler kept his stock, here was Jane Withersteen's red herd; here were the few cattle that had disappeared fro the last two years Until Oldring had driven the red herd his thefts of cattle for that tih to supply meat for hisor the villages north And Venters knew that the riders had wondered at Oldring's inactivity in that particular field He and his band had been active enough in their visits to Glaze and Cottonwoods; they always had gold; but of late the aes had given rise to 's more frequent visits had resulted in new saloons, and where there had for fray in the little hae farther on up the pass, and from there drove the cattle to distant Utah tohere he was little known But Venters came finally to doubt this And, froan to fores and the ed evil deeds, and the fierce resistance offered any trailing riders, and the rustling of cattle-- these things were only the craft of the rustler-chief to conceal his real life and purpose and work in Deception Pass