[Illustration: "Ride Low--They're Coming!"] THE RUSTLER OF WIND RIVER By G. W. OGDEN WITH FRONTISPIECE By FRANK E. SCHOONOVER A. L. BURT COMPANY Publishers--New York Published by Arrangement with A. C. McClurg & Company Copyright A. C. McClurg & Co. 1917 Published March, 1917 CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I Strange Bargainings 1 II Beef Day 11 III The Ranchhouse by the River 28 IV The Man in the Plaid 41 V If He was a Gentleman 55 VI A Bold Civilian 66 VII Throwing the Scare 81 VIII Afoot and Alone 89 IX Business, not Company 102 X "Hell's a-goin' to Pop" 119 XI The Señor Boss Comes Riding 131 XII "The Rustlers!" 147 XIII The Trail at Dawn 160 XIV When Friends Part 182 XV One Road 196 XVI Danger and Dignity 215 XVII Boots and Saddles 227 XVIII The Trail of the Coffee 240 XIX "I Beat Him to It" 252 XX Love and Death 268 XXI The Man in the Door 280 XXII Paid 298 XXIII Tears in the Night 303 XXIV Banjo Faces Into the West 312 XXV "Hasta Luego" 322 THE RUSTLER OF WIND RIVER CHAPTER I STRANGE BARGAININGS When a man came down out of the mountains looking dusty and gaunt as the stranger did, there was no marvel in the matter of his eating five cans of cove oysters. The one unaccountable thing about it was that Saul Chadron, president of the Drovers' Association, should sit there at the table and urge the lank, lean starveling to go his limit. Usually Saul Chadron was a man who picked his companions, and was a particular hand at the choosing. He could afford to do that, being of the earth's exalted in the Northwest, where people came to him and put down their tribute at his feet.