Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net [Illustration: "THE TRAIL LIFTED ZIG-ZAG OVER THE COYOTE RANGE" --Page 283] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- THE FORBIDDEN TRAIL By HONORE WILLSIE Author of "The Heart of the Desert," "Still Jim," "Lydia of the Pines," etc. A. L. Burt Company Publishers--New York Published by arrangement with Frederick A. Stokes Company ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright, 1919, by Frederick A. Stokes Company All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign languages Printed in the United States of America ----------------------------------------------------------------------- CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. THE DREAMER 1 II. HOPES DEFERRED 32 III. THE NEW DAY 52 IV. CHARLEY 81 V. VON MINDEN 105 VI. THE LETTER FROM WASHINGTON 130 VII. THE RUNAWAY 151 VIII. THE LONELY HUNTER 176 IX. GUSTAV 186 X. DEATH IN THE DESERT 206 XI. DICK'S SICKNESS 228 XII. DICKY'S LAST BOUT 249 XIII. THE GREAT DIVIDE 265 XIV. WASHINGTON 275 XV. RABBIT TAIL'S GANG 295 XVI. THE RIVER RANGE 314 XVII. THE BLACK BOX 345 XVIII. PAPA WOLF 358 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- THE FORBIDDEN TRAIL CHAPTER I THE DREAMER Roger was only seven. He was tall for his age and very thin. He had a thick crop of black hair and his eyes were large and precisely the color of the summer sky that lifted above the Moores' back yard. These were the little boy's only claims to beauty, for even at this time Roger's face was too much of the intellectual type to be handsome. Beauty is seldom intelligent. Roger's long, thin jaw, his thin, thoughtful mouth, his high forehead, were distinctly of the thinking, dreaming type. It was midsummer and Roger's tanned legs and feet were bare and scratched and mosquito bitten. He wore a little blue gingham sailor suit, which was much rumpled and soiled.