[25] Counters.
[26] Deputy Marshal.
CHAPTER IX. ANIMAS VALLEY.—III.
It was still dark when Murray rose and looked outside, letting an eager rush of frosty air into the room that brought me back from heaven knows where I had strayed in dozing. Without—
"The dawn in russet mantle clad,
Peeped o'er the brow of yonder distant hill,"
—old Animas Peak, which loomed up indistinct and colourless in the distance. Everything was ghostly and still, even the breath of chill wind that crept almost noiselessly up the valley. Presently, like a great trumpet's blare, the calling of a far-off cow to its calf rang through the hollow silence. Swiftly the red ripples of sunrise broke on the gray sea of dawn. The spectral Animas issued from obscurity, clad regally in purple and a few plumes of silver mist;
"The fair star that gems the glittering coronet of morn,"