tell them something else that was mighty pretty.
"What was it?" said Demorest.
"Well," said Barker, "don't laugh! But you know that Jack Hamlin? Well,
boys, he's been hovering around us on his mustang, keeping us and that
pack-mule in sight ever since we left. Sometimes he's on a side trail
off to the right, sometimes off to the left, but always at the same
distance. I didn't like to tell you, boys, for I thought you'd laugh
at me; but I think, you know, he's taken a sort of shine to us since he
dropped in last night. And I fancy, you see, he's sort of hanging round
to see that we get along all right. I'd have pointed him out before
only I reckoned you and Stacy would say he was making up to us for our
money."
"And we'd have been wrong, Barker boy," said Stacy, with a heartiness
that surprised Demorest, "for I reckon your instinct's the right one."
"There he is now," said the gratified Barker, "just abreast of us on the
cut-off. He started just after we did, and he's got a horse that could
have brought him into Boomville hours ago. It's just his kindness."
He pointed to a distant fringe of buckeye from which Jack Hamlin had
just emerged. Although evidently holding in a powerful mustang, nothing
could be more unconscious and utterly indifferent than his attitude. He
did not seem to know of the proximity of any other traveler, and to care
less. His handsome head was slightly thrown back, as if he was caroling
after his usual fashion, but the distance was too great to make his
melody audible to them, or to allow Barker's shout of invitation to
reach him. Suddenly he lowered his tightened rein, the mustang sprang
forward, and with a flash of silver spurs and bridle fripperies he had
disappeared. But as the trail he was pursuing crossed theirs a mile
beyond, it seemed quite possible that they should again meet him.
They were now fairly into the Boomville valley, and were entering a
narrow arroyo bordered with dusky willows which effectually excluded the
view on either side. It was the bed of a mountain torrent that in winter
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