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.It is not always cowardice which makes a man extremely careful not to fall into the hands of his enemy.There is a small matter of pride involved.Ward would have died almost any death rather than give Buck Olney the satisfaction of "getting" him.For a few days he was cautious as an Indian on the war trail, and then his patience frazzled out under the strain.At sunrise one morning, after a night of shivering in his blanket, he hunched his shoulders in disgust of his caution.If Buck Olney wanted anything of him, he was certainly taking his time about coming after it.Ward rubbed his fingers over his stubbly jaw, and the uncomfortable prickling was the last small detail of discomfort that decided him.He was going to have a shave and a decent cup of coffee and eat off his own table, or know the reason why, he promised himself while he slapped the saddle on Rattler.He was camped in a sheltered little hollow in the hills, where the grass was good and there was a spring.It was a mile and more to his claim, straight across the upland, and it was his habit to leave Rattler there and walk over to the ridge, where he could watch his claim; frequently, as I have said, he stole down before daylight and lighted a fire in the stove, just to make it look as if he lived there.There was a risk in that, of course, granting that the stock inspector was the kind to lie in wait for him.Ward rode to the ridge, with his blanket rolled and tied behind the cantle.His frying-pan hung behind his leg, and his rifle lay across the saddle in front of him.He was going home boldly enough and recklessly enough, but he was by no means disposed to walk deliberately into a trap.He kept his eye peeled, as he would have expressed it.Also, he left Rattler just under the crest of the ridge, took off his spurs, and with his rifle in his hands went forward afoot, as he had done every time he had approached his cabin since the day he found the corral and the cattle in the canyon.In this wise he looked down the steep slope with the sun throwing the shadow of his head and shoulders before him.The cabin window blinked cheerfully in the sunlight.His span of mares were coming up from the meadow—in the faint hope of getting a breakfast of oats, perhaps.The place looked peaceful enough and cozily desirable to a man who has slept out for four nights late in the fall; but a glance was all Ward gave to it.His eyes searched the bluff below him and upon either side.Of a sudden they sharpened.He brought his rifle forward with an involuntary motion of the arms.He stood so for a breath or two, looking down the hill.Then he went forward stealthily, on his toes; swiftly, too, so that presently he was close enough to see the carbuncle scar on the neck of the man crouched behind a rock and watching the cabin as a cat watches a mouse-hole.A rifle lay across the rock before the man, the muzzle pointing downward.At that distance, and from a dead rest, it would be strange if he should miss any object he shot at.He had what gamblers call a cinch, or he would have had, if the man he watched for had not been standing directly behind him, with rifle-sights in a line with the scar on the back of his thick neck."Throw up your hands!" Ward called sharply, when his first flare of rage had cooled to steady purpose.Buck Olney jumped as though a yellow-jacket had stung him.He turned a startled face over his shoulder and jerked the rifle up from the rock.Ward raised his sights a little and plugged a round, black-rimmed hole through Buck's hat crown."Throw up your hands, I told you!" he said, while the hills opposite were still flinging back the sound of the shot, and came closer.Buck grunted an oath, dropped the rifle so suddenly that it clattered on the rock, and lifted his hands high, in the quiet sunlight."Get up from there and go on down to the shack—and keep your hands up.And remember all the reasons I've got for wanting to see you make a crooked move, so I'll have an excuse to shoot." Ward came still closer as he spoke.He was wishing he had brought his rope along.He did not feel quite easy in his mind while Buck Olney's hands were free
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