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A significant silence fell upon the group at the conclusion of

Wood's narrative Wood had liked the telling, and it htful All at once the pale face of Kells turned

slightly toward Gulden

"Gulden, did you hear that?" asked Kells

"Yes," replied the man

"What do you think about this Jim Cleve--and the job he prevented?"

"Never saw Cleve I'll look hiet back to camp Then

I'll go after the Brander girl"

How strangely his brutal assurance marked a line between hi perverse in this

Gulden Had Kells et an

impression of Cleve?

Joan could not decide She divined that there was antagonis else, vague and

intangible, that ht have been fear Apparently Gulden was a

cri

terror--augmented the more because he alone kept eyes upon the

corner where she was hidden--and she felt that compared with him the

others, even Kells, of whose cold villainy she was assured, were but

insignificant men of evil She covered her head with a blanket to

shut out sight of that shaggy, reat dark caves

of eyes

Thereupon Joan did not see or hear any more of the bandits