Somers lit a cigarette; Springer wiped his face with a grimy hand and counted the shells in his belt, which appeared to be half empty.

Colter stretched his long neck like a vulture and peered down the slope and through the aisles of the forest up toward the canyon rim.
"Listen!" he said, tersely, and bent his head a little to one side, ear to the slight breeze.
They all listened.

Ellen heard the beating of her heart, the rustle of leaves, the tapping of a woodpecker, and faint, remote sounds that she could not name.
"Deer, I reckon," spoke up Somers.
"Ahuh! Wal, I reckon they ain't trailin' us yet," replied Colter.

"We gave them a shade better 'n they sent us." "Short an' sweet!" ejaculated Springer, and he removed his black sombrero to poke a dirty forefinger through a buffet hole in the crown.
"Thet's how close I come to cashin'.

I was lyin' behind a log, listenin' an' watchin', an' when I stuck my head up a little--zam! Somebody made my bonnet leak." "Where's Queen ?" asked Colter.
"He was with me fust off," replied Somers.