the
midday sun
Having put the quietus on this , he was returning to Epitaph by way of the Huachuca Mountains . There are still places in Arizona where rapid transit can be achieved more expeditiously on the back of a bronco than by means of the railroad , even when the latter is available . So now Bucky was taking a short cut across country instead of making the two train changes , with the consequent inevitable delays that would have been necessary to travel by rail . He traveled at night and in the early morning , to avoid the heat of the midday sun , and it was in the evening of the second and last day that the skirts of happy chance led him to an adventure that was to affect his whole future life . He knew a waterhole on the Del Oro , where cows were wont to frequent even in the summer drought , and toward this he was making in the fag-end of the sultry day . While still some hundred yards distant he observed a spiral of smoke rising from a camp-fire at the spring , and he at once made a more circumspect approach . For it might be any one of a score of border ruffians who owed him a grudge and would be glad to pay it in the silent desert that tells no tales and betrays no secrets to the inquisitive .