Charles E. Van Loan

“ The traveler did not dare to sleep soundly by the wayside, and he fled out of the hills with his hand on the butt of his pistol, like a man pursued by enemies. It was not that his conscience troubled him. Far from that; but he was aware that he was now well worth killing, and the thought brought no comfort with it. He drew his first long breath when he looked down on Silver Tip and the line of the railroad. ”

“ Five days of nervous haste, five nights of real fear, during which time the Great Gilmore came to know that a lively imagination could be a curse to its owner, and then—Silver Tip in the distance, and safety at last. There would be no passenger-train until the morning, but the traveler remembered, with gratitude too deep for words, that there was at least one good bed in the Occidental Hotel—and money would buy it. ”

“ The diamonds proved equally diverting. These he had found tied up in a dirty red bandanna handkerchief, a flashing handful of fiery drops which blazed in the sunlight. Bad Jake had evidently been a good judge of stones, for he had managed to make a very creditable collection—seventy-eight of them in all. ”