Slowly, stealthily, with many a cautious pause, the crawling body drew steadily nearer. Though the intense darkness prevented him from seeing anything, Buck felt at last that he had correctly gaged the position of the unknown plotter. Trying to continue that easy, steady breathing, which had been no easy matter, he slightly raised his weapon and then, with a sudden, lightning movement, he drew the match firmly across the rough board.
To his anger and chagrin the head broke off. Before he could snatch up another and strike it viciously, there came from close at hand a sudden rustle, a creak, 120 the clatter of something on the floor, followed by dead silence. When the light flared up, illumining dimly almost the whole length of the room, there was nothing in the least suspicious to be seen.
Nevertheless, with inward cursing, Stratton sprang up and lit the lamp he had used early in the evening and which he had purposely left within reach. With this added illumination he made a discovery that brought his lips together in a grim line.
Someone lay stretched out in the bunk next to his own—Jessup’s bunk, which had been empty when he went to bed.
For a fleeting instant Buck wondered whether Bud could possibly have returned and crawled in there unheard. Then, as the wick flared up, he not only realized that this couldn’t have happened, but recognized lying on the youngster’s rolled-up blankets the stout figure and round, unshaven face of—Slim McCabe.
As he stood staring at the fellow, there was a stir from further down the room and a sleepy voice growled:
“What’s the matter? It ain’t time to get up yet, is it?”
Buck, who had just caught a glint of steel on the floor at the edge of the bunk, pulled himself together.
“No; I—I must have had a—nightmare,” he 121 returned in a realistically dazed tone. “I was dreaming about—rustlers, and thought I heard somebody walking around.”
Still watching McCabe surreptitiously, he saw the fellow’s lids lift sleepily.