After an hour of undisputed riding on this forbidden trail, the pass narrowed rather abruptly till it was not more than a furlong in width; the hills stretched their heads still higher, as if they wanted to see the fun, and the shadow of the eastern rim laid clear across the narrow valley and touched the foot of the opposite slope.  I hope I am not going to be called nervous if I tell the truth about things; when I rode into the shadow I stopped whistling a bad imitation of meadow-lark notes.  A bit farther and I pulled up, looked all around, and got off and tightened the cinch a bit more.  Shylock—­I always rode him when I could—­threw his head around and nearly took a chunk out of my arm, and in reproving him I forgot, for a minute, the ticklish game I was playing.  Then I loosened my gun—­I had learned to carry it inconspicuously under my coat, as did the other boys—­made sure it could be pulled without embarrassing delay, and went on.  Around the next turn a five-wired fence stretched across the trail, with a gate fastened by a chain and padlock.  I whistled under my breath, and eyed the lock with extreme disfavor.

But I had learned a trick of the cowboys.  I pulled the wire off a couple of posts at one side of the gate, laid them flat on the ground, and led Shylock over them.  Then I found a rock, pounded the staples back in place, and went on; only for the tracks, one could not notice that any had passed that way.  Still, it was a bit ticklish, riding down King’s Highway alone and with no idea of what lay farther on.  But dad had dared go that way, and to fight at the far end; and what dad had not been afraid to tackle, it did not behoove his son to back down from.  I made Shylock walk the next half-mile, with some notion of saving his wind for an emergency run.

Of a sudden I rounded a sharp nose of hill and came plump on the palace of the King.  It looked a good deal like the Bay State Ranch—­big corrals and sheds and stables, and little place for man to dwell.  The house, though, was bigger than ours, and looked more comfortable to live in.  And the thing that struck me most was the head which King displayed for strategy.  The trail wound between those same sheds and corrals, a gantlet two hundred yards long that one must run or turn back.  On either side the bluffs rose sheer, with the buildings crowding close against their base.  I didn’t wonder Frosty called King’s Highway “bad medicine.”  It certainly did look like it.

I went softly along that trail, turning sharp corners around a shed here, circling a corral there, with my hand within an inch of my gun, and my heart within an inch of my teeth, and you may laugh all you like.

No one seemed to be about; the sheds were deserted, and a few horses dozed in a corral that I passed; but human being I saw none.  It was evident that King did not consider his enemy worth watching.  I passed the last shed and found myself headed straight for the house; I had still to get through its very dooryard before I was in any position to crow, and beyond the house was another fence; I hoped the gate was not locked.  Shylock pricked up his ears, then laid them back along his neck as if he did not approve the layout, either.  But we ambled right along, like a deacon headed for prayer-meeting, and I tried to look in four different directions at one and the same time.