Bolles ducked, and bullets grooved the spraying snow. They rounded a
corner and saw the crowd jumping into the corral, and Sam's door empty of
that prudent Celestial.

"He's a very wise Chinaman!" shouted Drake, as they rushed.

"What?" screamed Bolles.

"Very wise Chinaman. He'll break that stove now to prove his innocence."

"Who did you say was innocent?" screamed Bolles.

"Oh, I said you were," yelled Drake, disgusted; and he gave over this
effort at conversation as their horses rushed along.


V

It was a dim, wide stretch of winter into which Drake and Bolles galloped
from the howling pursuit. Twilight already veiled the base of Castle
Rock, and as they forged heavily up a ridge through the caking snow, and
the yells came after them, Bolles looked seriously at Dean Drake; but
that youth wore an expression of rising merriment. Bolles looked back at
the dusk from which the yells were sounding, then forward to the
spreading skein of night where the trail was taking him and the boy, and
in neither direction could he discern cause for gayety.

"May I ask where we are going?" said he.

"Away," Drake answered. "Just away, Bolles. It's a healthy resort."