THE LIQUOR-RUNNERS Dusk was closing in when George and the hired man whom Grant had sent with him reached the bluff and tethered their horses where they would be hidden among the trees.

This done, George stood still for a few moments, looking about.

A dark, cloud-barred sky hung over the prairie, which was fast fading into dimness; the wood looked desolate and forbidding in the dying light.

He did not think any one could have seen him and his companion enter it.

Then he and the man floundered through the undergrowth until they reached the sloo, where they hid themselves among the grass at some distance from the case, which had not been removed.
There was no moon, and a fresh breeze swept through the wood, waking eerie sounds and sharp rustlings among the trees.