The Law-Breakers

Author of “The Story of the Foss River Ranch,” “In the Brooding Wild,” “The Way of the Strong,” Etc.
With Frontispiece in Colors
Published by Arrangement with George W. Jacobs & Co.
Copyright, 1914, by George W. Jacobs & Company
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED PRINTED IN U. S. A.
THE WAY OF THE STRONG THE TWINS OF SUFFERING CREEK THE NIGHT-RIDERS THE ONE-WAY TRAIL THE TRAIL OF THE AXE THE SHERIFF OF DYKE HOLE THE WATCHERS OF THE PLAINS
“WHAT IS THIS MAN TO YOU?” HE DEMANDED
The Law-Breakers. Frontispiece.

There was no shade anywhere. The terrible glare of the summer sun beat down upon the whole length of the wooden platform at Amberley. Hot as was the dry, bracing air, it was incomparable with the blistering intensity of heat reflected from the planking, which burned through to the soles of the feet of the uniformed man who paced its length, slowly, patiently.
This sunburnt, gray-eyed man, with his loose, broad shoulders, his powerful, easy-moving limbs, seemed quite indifferent to the irritating climatic conditions of the moment. Even the droning of the worrying mosquitoes had no power to disturb him. Like everything else unpleasant in this distant northwestern land, he accepted these things as they came, and brushed them aside for the more important affairs he was engaged upon.
He gazed out across the wide monotony of prairie with its undulating wavelets, a tawny green beneath the scorching summer sun. He was thinking deeply; perhaps dreaming, although dreaming had small enough place in his busy life. His lot was a stern fight against crime, and, in a land so vast, so new, where crime flourished upon virgin soil, it left him little time for the more pleasant avenues of thought.