In the celebration he had drunk with Reeve till the boy stupefied.

Then he had induced Reeve to gamble for his share of the claim and had won it.

Afterward Pete swore to be even with him.

But the years had gone by without another meeting of the men.
Only today, riding through the mountains, he had come on a dried-up wisp of a man with long, iron-gray hair, a sharp, withered face, and hands like the claws of a bird.

He rode a fine bay gelding, and had stopped Bill to ask some questions about the region above the timberline because he was drifting south and intended to cross the summits.