The mountain rose from the very verge of the town, a ragged mass of sand and rock, with miserable sagebrush clinging here and there, as dull and uninteresting as the dust itself.

Then he lowered the hand from beneath which he had peered and faced about with a sigh.

"I guess it ain't much good trying that way.

But I got to get to Stillwater inside of three hours." "They's one hoss in town can get you there," said the old man.

"But you can't get that hoss today." The stranger groaned.