Yet--and this was one of the strange things of that strange country, which we accepted without curiosity and without argument--there was, in that far-away region, a mysterious fashion by which news got about over great distances.

Perhaps it was a rider in by the short trail over Lone Mountain who brought the word that he had seen, thirty miles away by the longer road up the canon, the white smoke of the desert dust that said the stage was coming.

This news brought little but a present terror to Dan Anderson, as I looked at him in query.
"Man," said he, as he gripped my arm, "you see, up there on Carrizo, the big canon where we hunt bear.

You know, up there at the end, there's a big pine tree.

Well, now, if you or any of the citizens of this commercial emporium should require the legal services of the late Daniel Anderson, you go up the canon and look up the tree.