There, coming toward him, out of a black thicket, was a strange apparition that seemed to be floating through the air. As it neared him Shorty made out the outlines of a man, especially the black slouch hat, but the man, thought the dazed Shorty, must be walking on stilts. It was only when the thing got almost upon him that Shorty saw the darker form of the rider was atop a huge white mule--a white mule! At that moment Shorty’s blood froze within him. Here, ahead of him, was undoubtedly Buck Bancroft, most feared of highwaymen, on whose head was a five-hundred-dollar reward. The mule halted abruptly, and at that, just as Shorty himself had been awakened a few moments before, the stranger was roused into wakefulness. He wasted no time rubbing his eyes. There was a flash and Shorty was staring into the muzzle of a revolver, held on him over the mule’s head. “Welcome, pard, to the lonesome spaces!” said the stranger, in not unpleasant tones. “How come, where go?” Shorty, mad at himself for not taking advantage of the opportunity that had been manifestly his, before the mule had stopped and awakened its rider, was surly. “Yuh know well enough, Mister Bancroft!” At that the road agent straightened in his saddle. “So!” he exclaimed. “Yuh know me, an’ seem to think I should know where yuh are goin’! If I should know where yuh are goin’ and don’t, then it proves I must guess. Ef I should be wise to yuh, as yuh say yuh must be good pickin’s.” Shorty shivered. “Huh,” said the stranger, “what’s that in yuhr leather case thar, counselor? Are yuh goin’ to court to help convict some client, or ----” He reached for the case and when he jerked it away he almost took Shorty’s head with it. “Shame on yuh for wakin’ me up,” said Bancroft. “I ain’t had a good sleep for a week. Feel drowsy.” Shorty made no answer as Bancroft investigated the leather case. “Dough, eh!” he exclaimed, after a hasty examination, during which he kept the worried Shorty still covered. “Yuh said it,” admitted Shorty, ruefully. “Waal now,” said Bancroft, well pleased at his luck, “I’m sure obliged to yuh, mister! Bringin’ this up to me on a cold night, through the snow! I’m sure enough grateful. But thar’s one thing, yuh must be my guest up to my cabin. I can’t let yuh go back to town to report I held yuh up, when the roads are so pore for travelin’. Now, yuh’ll just come with me, drop outta sight for a few days, an’ the folks will decide a snow slide has swallered yuh up, hoss an’ all, or else that yuh has flirted with temptation and she, yuh, an’ the coin has gone over the hill together, to some healthier climate.” “Say,” began Shorty. But he found, after all, that he had little to say about it. His self-appointed host quietly disarmed him and then invited him to get off Lobo Loco, and Shorty did.