"Ugh!" said the Sheriff. "We will have a blizzard on us before long, and Government pay doesn't warrant one taking chances of that kind. Aren't we playing a fool's game, Clavering?" Clavering laughed somewhat unpleasantly. "There are other emoluments attached to your office which should cover a little inconvenience," he said. "Now, I fancy I know Larry Grant better than the rest of you, and it would take quite a large-sized blizzard to keep him at home when he had anything to do. Once you put him out of the way it will make things a good deal more pleasant for everybody. Larry is the one man with any brains the homesteaders have in this part of the country, and while they would make no show without him, we can expect nothing but trouble while he's at liberty. It seems to me that warrants our putting up with a little unpleasantness." "Quite improving!" said Allonby, who was not in the best of temper just then. "One could almost wonder if you had any personal grudge against the man, Clavering. You are so astonishingly disinterested when you talk of him. Now, if I didn't like a man I'd make an opportunity of telling him." Clavering laughed. "You're young, Chris, or you wouldn't worry about folks' motives when their efforts suit you. What are the men doing?" "Freezing, and grumbling!" said Allonby. "They've made up their minds to get Larry this time or we wouldn't have kept them here. It's the horses I'm anxious about. They seem to know what is coming, and they're going to give us trouble." "A fool's game!" repeated the Sheriff, with a shiver. "Got any of those cigars with you, Clavering? If I'm to stay here, I have to smoke." Clavering threw him the case and turned away with Allonby. They went down through the bluff together and stood a few moments looking up the trail. It led downwards towards them, a streak of faintly shining whiteness, through the gloom of the trees, and the wind that set the branches thrashing whirled powdery snow into their faces, though whether this came down from the heavens or was uplifted from the frozen soil they did not know. With eyes dimmed and tingling cheeks, they moved back again amidst the birches; but even there it was bitterly cold, and Allonby was glad to turn his face from the wind a moment as they stopped to glance at the tethered horses. They were stamping impatiently, while the man on watch, who would have patted one of them, sprang backwards when the beast lashed out at him. "If Larry doesn't come soon, I guess we're going to find it hard to keep them here," he said. "They're 'most pulling the branches they're hitched to off the trees." Allonby nodded. "Larry would be flattered if he knew the trouble you and I were taking over him, Clavering," he said. "It's also the first time I've seen you worry much about this kind of thing." "What kind of thing?" "Citizen's duty! I think that's the way you put it?"