Page:Ritchie - Trails to Two Moons.djvu/281

 body of him composed itself into a velvet calm of ordered nerves and muscles prime to leap to the reflexes of thought. Always it was this way with the range inspector when he stood on the threshold of action where the gauge of his life was laid in the scales; a clarity like dawn light swept over his mind, and every spring in his body was at the instant call of necessity. Exaltation would be the word to comprehend all.

He remained by the single window of the loft until his eyes had accustomed themselves to the deeper gloom under the roof. Slowly suggestions of shapes and bulks came to his brain,—the sharp angle of the roof meeting at a ridge-pole, here and there a box. He stooped and his sentient fingers spread before him to feel a way. One step—another. He placed each foot as a stalking cat might. Now a quick look over one shoulder showed the dim square of the window miles away, yet he had moved but two paces.

One groping hand encountered an upright pole. The other hand instantly shot out to find the hoped-for mate of that pole. It was found. Here was the ladder dropping to the room below where the sleepers were. Now, steadying