Page:Edison Marshall--Shepherds of the wild.djvu/180

172 those darkened hills might have found shelter in his own tent. And this was the man who—a few days before—had been inwardly proud that he never made chance acquaintances, that he never accepted another for friendship or discourse except through the channels of his own social plane. It wasn't being done by the men he knew: to arrive at any comradeship without first a correct introduction and then a certain amount of preliminary. How great had been the change! Yet in this case the man was obviously unfriendly; and Hugh slowly stiffened beneath his angry gaze.

"What do you mean by it?" the man demanded. "Hollerin' out?"

"Why, I meant " Hugh replied, in a perfectly casual tone, "exactly what I said. That I'd shoot if you didn't reveal yourself. I'm against coyotes, wild or human. And what are you doing here?"

Fargo noted with some amazement that the tables had been—as if by a magician's magic—instantly turned about; and that he himself was no longer the inquisitor. He bristled, furious that this lowly herder should not instantly yield to his own superiority. Yet he suddenly remembered certain little facts that tended to restrain him. The man was in his rights: and perhaps it was best to have some explanation for his presence on the night following a murder.

"Don't go making any inferences you'll