CONTENTS
| CHAPTER | PAGE | |
| I. | Bully Presby | [9] |
| II. | The Croix d’Or | [22] |
| III. | An Ugly Watchman | [36] |
| IV. | The Black Death | [51] |
| V. | The Aged Engineer | [71] |
| VI. | My Lady of the Horse | [97] |
| VII. | The Woman Unafraid | [114] |
| VIII. | The Inconsistent Bully | [129] |
| IX. | Where a Girl Advises | [151] |
| X. | Trouble Stalks Abroad | [167] |
| XI. | Bells’ Valiant Fight | [182] |
| XII. | A Disastrous Blow | [195] |
| XIII. | The Dynamiter | [208] |
| XIV. | “Though Love Say Nay” | [225] |
| XV. | “Mr. Sloan Speaks” | [240] |
| XVI. | Benefits Returned | [258] |
| XVII. | When Reason Swings | [271] |
| XVIII. | The Bully Meets His Master | [288] |
| XIX. | The Quest Supreme | [303] |
THE PLUNDERER
CHAPTER I
BULLY PRESBY
Plainly the rambling log structure was a road house and the stopping place for a mountain stage. It had the watering trough in front, the bundle of iron pails cluttered around the rusted iron pump, and the trampled muddy hollow created by many tired hoofs striking vigorously to drive away the flies. It was in a tiny flat beside the road, and mountains were everywhere; hard-cut, relentless giants, whose stern faces portrayed a perpetual constancy. At the trough two burros, with their packs deftly lashed, thrust soft gray muzzles deep into the water, and held rigid their long gray ears, casting now and then a wise look at the young man in worn mining clothes who stood patiently beside them.