The mountains were to his right, not far away, but caught up behind the shadows so that it seemed a great distance.  Like all huge, half-seen things they seemed in motion toward him.  For the rest, he was in bare, rolling country.  The sky line everywhere was clean; there was hardly a sign of a tree.  He knew, by a little reflection, that this must be cattle country, for the brakie had intimated as much in their talk just before dusk.  Now it was early night, and a wind began to rise, blowing down the valley with a keen motion and a rapidly lessening temperature, so that Donnegan saw he must get to a shelter.  He could, if necessary, endure any privation, but his tastes were for luxurious comfort.  Accordingly he considered the landscape with gloomy disapproval.  He was almost inclined to regret his plunge from the lumbering freight train.  Two things had governed him in making that move.  First, when he discovered that the long trail he followed was definitely fruitless, he was filled with a great desire to cut himself away from his past and make a new start.  Secondly, when he learned that Rusty Dick had been killed by Joe, he wanted desperately to get the throttle of the latter under his thumb.  If ever a man risked his life to avoid a sin, it was Donnegan jumping from the train to keep from murder.

He stooped to sight along the ground, for this is the best way at night and often horizon lights are revealed in this manner.  But now Donnegan saw nothing to serve as a guide.  He therefore drew in his belt until it fitted snug about his gaunt waist, settled his cap firmly, and headed straight into the wind.

Nothing could have shown his character more distinctly.

When in doubt, head into the wind.

With a jaunty, swinging step he sauntered along, and this time, at least, his tactics found an early reward.  Topping the first large rise of ground, he saw in the hollow beneath him the outline of a large building.  And as he approached it, the wind clearing a high blowing mist from the stars, he saw a jumble of outlying houses.  Sheds, barns, corrals—­it was the nucleus of a big ranch.  It is a maxim that, if you wish to know a man look at his library and if you wish to know a rancher, look at his barn.  Donnegan made a small detour to the left and headed for the largest of the barns.

He entered it by the big, sliding door, which stood open; he looked up, and saw the stars shining through a gap in the roof.  And then he stood quietly for a time, listening to the voices of the wind in the ruin.  Oddly enough, it was pleasant to Donnegan.  His own troubles and sorrow had poured upon him so thickly in the past hour or so that it was soothing to find evidence of the distress of others.  But perhaps this meant that the entire establishment was deserted.

He left the barn and went toward the house.  Not until he was close under its wall did he come to appreciate its size.  It was one of those great, rambling, two-storied structures which the cattle kings of the past generation were fond of building.  Standing close to it, he heard none of the intimate sounds of the storm blowing through cracks and broken walls; no matter into what disrepair the barns had fallen, the house was still solid; only about the edges of the building the storm kept murmuring.