One afternoon he was riding alone in front of the train, which was then making its laborious way through a series of foothills. He was in one of his moods when he wished to have no companion,――not even his favorite “younker,” Alden Payne. Suddenly from the cliffs on his right rang the sharp report of a rifle. There could be no mistaking the target, for the bowl of his briarwood pipe was shattered and sent flying into space, leaving only a stump of the stem between his lips.