2. Do not waste time in getting started. Remember that preliminaries are dangerous in the writing of an account of adventure. Be as economical with them as possible. 3. Be sure that your story _mounts_ continually, that the suspense increases. Do not allow any digressions. 4. Do not, however, be in too great a hurry to relate your climactic incident. You will increase the suspense by slowing down before you reach it, by giving _all_ the details. Note how fully and clearly Mr. Townshend depicts every step of the proceeding between the verdict of guilty and the actual hanging. A less careful writer would have spoiled his narrative by being in too much of a hurry. 5. Make your close as effective as possible, and _know when you have finished_. Note that _Wild Justice_ really ends with the words, “The work was done.” M. E. C. WILD JUSTICE R. B. TOWNSHEND Returning to Denver, I parted company with Matthews; to tell the truth, I was a bit tired of his everlasting sneers, so often (as I thought) directed against better men than himself. Besides, I thought I was competent now to stand on my own feet instead of going around on a personally conducted tour. Naturally my first step was to buy a horse. For this I went to Billy and Hi Ford, who had brought some 1500 head of wild bronco stock--bronco is Spanish for unbroken--from California to Denver where they were selling them as rapidly as they could get them broken in. Ford Brothers soon took my measure and for I think $60 fitted me out with a little brown mare, who had been ridden several times. They put me very carefully on her, and I went down the Platte a few miles and put up at a ranch. Along the main freighting roads most ranches would take you in overnight and give you supper, bed and breakfast for $1.50, or if your horse had to be fed also, for $2.25. A snowstorm came on that night and I lay there two days till the weather improved. The little brown mare had done herself uncommonly well in the barn, and when I tried to climb on to her back on the third morning she began to play up. The friendly and much amused ranchman lent me a helping hand, however, and at last I got myself fixed in the saddle with my blanket roll padding me in well there and the ranchman hanging tight on to her head. “Do you think she’ll buck?” I asked nervously as he let her go. “Guess so,” said he.