“Wonder who it be?”
“Evidently some one who isn’t afraid of traveling on a dark night.”
“They come this way, I think.”
“I only hope it’s Jed Warren, or some one with a message from him. This is not quite the hour for receiving visitors.” Erskine chuckled audibly. “Still, my suspicions are always roused when men pass by the brightly-lighted barracks of the police without stopping in to say howdy-do.”
“Yes; for they sure come this way,” said Teddy Banes. “One, two, three—four, maybe.”
“Yes; and mounted, as every respectable man ought to be in a country like this. I’ll stake my month’s pay I heard the neigh of a horse.”
“For sure. I hear him, too.”
Straining all their faculties the two stepped from the bright light which issued from the open door and windows into the gloom beyond. For some time neither uttered a sound. But, at length, as the voices which had so aroused their curiosity were no longer heard, Sergeant Erskine spoke up:
“I’ve a good mind to saddle my horse and take a run out on the prairie.”
The half-breed grunted a monosyllable.