o drive two more stones in, sending them close
to the fellow, yet without hitting him.

Again the man shouted at him, though he did not attempt to come
any nearer to so expert a thrower of stones.

Then, suddenly, just behind him, Harry Hazelton heard a sound.
In the next instant two men hurled themselves upon the young
engineer, pinning him to the ground.

"I ought to have suspected this!" grunted Harry inwardly, as he
fought back with all his strength. He might have succeeded in
slipping away from the two men who sought to pin him down, but
the third man, still aching from contact with Harry's missiles,
now darted into the scrimmage, striking several hard blows. Harry
was presently conquered and tied.

"Take the cub to his own camp!" sounded the exultant voice of
Dolph Gage. "With one of the pair tied, it won't be hard to
handle the other whenever he happens along."

CHAPTER X

TOM'S FIGHTING BLOOD SURGES

"Take another hitch of rope around that young steer," Dolph ordered,
after he had flung Harry violently to the ground.

"He wont get away as he is," replied one of the other two men.

"Maybe not, but take an extra roping, as I told you," was Gage's
tart retort.

So another length of line was passed around Hazelton, until he
felt as though he had been done up in network.

"Now; we'll give your partner a chance to show up," muttered Gage,
throwing himself on the ground. "You young fellers will have
to learn the lesson that you're thirty miles from anywhere, and
that we rule matters around here. We're going to keep on ruling,
too, in this strip of Nevada."

"Are you?" grimaced Hazelton. "Then, my friend, allow me to tell
you that you are making the mistake of trying to reckon without
Tom Reade!"

"Is that your partner's name?" jeered Dolph Gage. "A likely enough
boy, from what I've heard of him. But he isn't old enough to
understand Nevada ways."

"No, perhaps not," Harry admitted ironically. "So far Tom has
gotten his training only in Colorado and in Arizona. I begin
to realize that he isn't bright enough to have his own way among
the bright men of Nevada. But Reade learns rapidly---don't forget
that!"

"Huh!" growled Gage. "The young cub seems to think that he has
come out here to take charge of the Range. According to his idea
he has only to pick out what he wanted here; and take it. He
never seems to understand that gold belongs to the first man who
finds it. I was on t