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SON OF THE WIND

CHAPTER I

THE MAN ON THE ROAD

I DON'T know anything about it," the man stubbornly insisted. His glance ran over the whole white-and black-spotted cañon, over the ardent blue horizon, over the buttes in front, swinging back like gates to show where the mountains began, and returned defiantly to Carron's face. "Don't even know there is such a thing," he concluded.

Carron couldn't help smiling. "You were very sure there was only a little while ago." He paused interrogatively, peering from the hood of the runabout. "Well, say you did overstate the facts, suppose you haven't seen it yourself—sure you don't know some one else who has seen it?"

"No, I don't!" he said loudly and sullenly. He gave the speaker a rapid, furtive glance. "I don't, and what's more, I tell you if I did I wouldn't let you know it—not if you gave me a thousand dollars!" He was working himself into a passion. Car-

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