Steve Yeager   By: William MacLeod Raine (1871-1954)

NEW YORK GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS

Made in the United States of America

COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY WILLIAM MACLEOD RAINE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

[Illustration: RUTH]

Contents

I STEVE MAKES A MISTAKE 1 II "ENOUGH'S A PLENTY" 10 III CHAD HARRISON 25 IV THE EXTRA 33 V YEAGER ASKS ADVICE 42 VI PLUCKING A PIGEON 56 VII STEVE TELLS TOO MUCH TRUTH 71 VIII THE HEAVY GETS HIS TIME 79 IX GABRIEL PASQUALE 86 X A NIGHT VISIT 96 XI CHAD DECIDES TO GET BUSY 112 XII INTO THE DESERT 121 XIII THE NIGHT TRAIL 131 XIV THE CAVE MEN 140 XV STEVE WINS A HAM SANDWICH 153 XVI THE HEAVY PAYS A DEBT 166 XVII PEDRO CABENZA 175 XVIII HARRISON OVERPLAYS HIS HAND 181 XIX THE TEXAN 194 XX NEAR THE END OF HIS TRAIL 207 XXI A STAGE PREPARED FOR TRAGEDY 216 XXII A CONSPIRACY 223 XXIII TRAPPED 229 XXIV THE PRISONER 247 XXV THE TEXAN TAKES A LONG JOURNEY 257 XXVI AT SUNSET 266 XXVII CULVERA RECONSIDERS 274 XXVIII AS LONG AS LIFE 284

STEVE YEAGER

CHAPTER I

STEVE MAKES A MISTAKE

Steve Yeager held his bronco to a Spanish trot. Somewhere in front of him, among the brown hill swells that rose and fell like waves of the sea, lay Los Robles and breakfast. One solitary silver dollar, too lonesome even to jingle, lay in his flatulent trouser pocket. After he and Four Bits had eaten, two quarters would take the place of the big cartwheel. Then would come dinner, a second transfer of capital, and his pocket would be empty as a cow's stomach after a long drive.

Being dead broke, according to the viewpoint of S. Yeager, is right and fitting after a jaunt to town when one has a good job back in the hills. But it happened he had no more job than a rabbit. Wherefore, to keep up his spirits he chanted the endless metrical version of the adventures of Sam Bass, who

"... started out to Texas a cowboy for to be, And a kinder hearted fellow you scarcely ever'd see."

Steve had not quit his job. It had quit him. A few years earlier the Lone Star Cattle Company had reigned supreme in Dry Sandy Valley and the territory tributary thereto. Its riders had been kings of the range. That was before the tide of settlement had spilled into the valley, before nesters had driven in their prairie schooners, homesteaded the water holes, and strung barb wire fences across the range. Line riders and dry farmers and irrigators had pushed the cowpuncher to one side. Sheep had come bleating across the desert to wage war upon the cattle. Finally Uncle Sam had sliced off most of the acreage still left and called it a forest reserve.